It's the kind of play that the fans at Yankee Stadium will be talking about for a while. And it was made in the stands -- by Michael Kacer, a veteran who lost his left arm in a rocket attack in Afghanistan a few years ago.
The 29-year-old Pennsylvania man was watching the game with his 13-year-old nephew when Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson fouled one back and to the right of the visitor's dugout. The ball took a big hop and headed toward Kacer, who was sitting in the first row. He reached over the railing and caught it -- with his hat. And then, as the crowd cheered, he immediately handed the ball over to his nephew, Isiah -- a big Yankees fan who was attending his first game. Video of the grab quickly showed up on the web, and ESPN showed it on SportsCenter. Kacer says all the attention is "like a wild roller coaster ride." You can see the outstanding snag for yourself on MLB.com.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Monday, June 27, 2011
Michele Bachmann Takes Swipe at Mitt Romney
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) took a swipe at former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney over his past support for abortion rights today, saying at a National Right-to Life conference that now is “not the time for Republicans to put up a candidate who is weak on this issue and has a history of flip-flopping on this issue.” Romney says he began opposing abortion rights in 2004, but he has refused to sign an anti-abortion rights pledge that he argues is too vague.
The Other Side Of The Adult Diaper Story
The Transportation Security Administration is standing by its officers after a 95-year-old woman was asked to remove her adult diaper during an airport security screening. CNN reports it happened at a Northwest Florida Regional Airport. The woman was selected for random screening. That's when TSA workers felt something suspicious on her leg and couldn't determine what it was. They asked the woman's daughter to take her to the bathroom and remove the adult diaper she was wearing. The TSA issued a statement saying their officers handled the situation in a "respectful and sensitive manner" and "according to proper procedure."
Obama Spies On Doctors
The Obama administration will spy on doctors to see how hard it is to get an appointment. The New York Times reports, the plan is to gather data on whether there is a shortage of primary care physicians. The Health and Human Service department is recruiting a team of mystery shoppers who will pose as patients.
Small Businesses Received $98 Billion In 2010
Small businesses received almost $98 billion in government contracts in 2010, but agencies still missed the government-wide goal for the fifth year running. The Small Business Administration releases its annual report.
It finds agencies awarded 22.7 percent of their contracts to small firms, falling just shy of the 23 percent goal.
But, SBA says the percentage was the largest increase in five years. Along with releasing the small business contracting totals for 2010, SBA also issued the agency report cards.
It finds agencies awarded 22.7 percent of their contracts to small firms, falling just shy of the 23 percent goal.
But, SBA says the percentage was the largest increase in five years. Along with releasing the small business contracting totals for 2010, SBA also issued the agency report cards.
VALEDICTORIAN SPEECH 2010 BY ERICA GOLDSON
There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years.”
The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast – How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?”
Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”
This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.
Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.
John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)
To illustrate this idea, doesn’t it perturb you to learn about the idea of “critical thinking.” Is there really such a thing as “uncritically thinking?” To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?
This was happening to me, and if it wasn’t for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.
And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.
More
This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.
Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.
John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)
To illustrate this idea, doesn’t it perturb you to learn about the idea of “critical thinking.” Is there really such a thing as “uncritically thinking?” To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?
This was happening to me, and if it wasn’t for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.
And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.
More
Delaware, County To Discuss Extensions For Developers
GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP) -- Sussex County officials plan to discuss a proposal to grant automatic extensions to developers whose projects have been hampered by the economy.
The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., reports the county Council will take up the issue at a meeting Tuesday. The proposal is being sponsored by Councilman Vance Phillips, who says further delays to
projects could hurt the local economy.
More
The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., reports the county Council will take up the issue at a meeting Tuesday. The proposal is being sponsored by Councilman Vance Phillips, who says further delays to
projects could hurt the local economy.
More
Myths Abound When Officials Talk Toll Increases
Democrats, Republicans both put us in this position
When Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. won election as governor in 2002, he was faced with a tricky problem.He had campaigned on a pledge to build the long-delayed Intercounty Connector in suburban Washington. The highway project would cost a fortune, far more than the state could afford out of its Transportation Trust Fund, and the Republican Ehrlich had taken a hard line against new taxes. He had to come up with some way to pay the $2.6 billion it would eventually cost.
The answer? He would make it a toll road. And to give his policies a semblance of geographical balance, he would launch a second $1 billion-plus megaproject in the Baltimore area: widening Interstate 95 northeast of the city by adding express toll lanes.
The opposition was underwhelming. The public, accustomed to thinking of tolls as relatively painless trifles, hardly raised a fuss. Business leaders were thrilled. Journalists, including myself, were distracted by the sexy issue of slots and barely paid attention when tolls were raised on the Harbor and Susquehanna River crossings in 2003.
Yes, the environmentalists tried to warn us that the ICC tolls would be high. And they were proved right. But I don't recall them ever talking about the tolls on the Fort McHenry Tunnel and Key Bridge. Had they successfully tapped into concerns about regional equity, they might have been more effective.
When the Ehrlich administration came up with its debt-heavy financing package for the ICC and the I-95 Express Toll Lanes, legislators forced some tweaks but basically gave it their blessing. A few far-out liberals raised a fuss, but the Democratic leadership and Republican minority were all for it.
More than eight years later, we're getting the bill for those decisions. The Maryland Transportation Authority has proposed a sweeping set of toll increases, the most in the state's history. And unhappy motorists are looking for someone to blame.
Try the nearest mirror.
We put Maryland in this position collectively. We wanted to avoid higher gas taxes, but we wanted new highways, too. Our elected officials, with few exceptions, signed on the dotted line. As a state, we pawned the revenue from all our toll facilities — not just the new ones. And we got some great interest rates in the process.
What I — along with most of my readers — didn't realize then is that when you commit to toll financing, it's a little like selling your soul to Satan. Old Scratch isn't in the business of letting you out of the contract. Default on the devil and there's hell to pay.
Much of the reaction to the proposed increases shows that ordinary folks — and some extraordinary ones as well — just don't understand tolls.
More
Pimlico Neighbors Deciding How To Spend $2mil In Slots Revenue
Neighborhoods surrounding Pimlico Race Course to receive $2 million in slots revenue this year
Funds to pay for demolition, acquisition of vacant houses, new 7-acre park, some human services
Surrounded by clusters of trees and tall grasses, the community garden on Woodland Avenue provides Mary Waller with a serene, pastoral view from her wide front porch, less than half a mile from the Pimlico Race Course.But only a few of Waller's neighbors are left to enjoy it. Her side of the street is lined with rowhouses long abandoned and left to deteriorate, a lasting reminder of how her block in Northwest Baltimore has languished since she moved in three decades ago.
"This was a beautiful, beautiful neighborhood," she said. But now, "there are very few people on Woodland Avenue, and everything is gone."
This year, plans long in the works to revitalize Park Heights could get started with an influx of $2 million from slots revenue, making this neighborhood among the first to see a tangible benefit from legalized casino gambling in Maryland.
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Andrew Cuomo, 2016 Frontrunner?
The passage of a same-sex marriage bill late Friday night in New York drew considerable national coverage to the Empire State and was broadly touted as a major victory for first term Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
It’s also stoked talk that Cuomo is rapidly transforming himself into a first among equals when it comes to the jockeying for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
“It’s not just that he delivered on a major civil rights issue for the Democratic base in a huge state, it’s how he did it — winning bipartisan support and sticking with it when it seemed it might fail,” said Democratic consultant Jason Ralston. “Combine that with his name and his focus on the middle class and he is at the front of the pack for 2016.”
Fewer Plan To Travel For July 4, Despite Drop In Gas
WASINGTON - You may see fewer people on the road if you are traveling for the July 4 weekend, even though the price of gas has dropped in the last few weeks.
Gas in the D.C. metro region now averages about $3.66 a gallon for unleaded regular, down 7 cents from last week.
But, when people were making their plans a few weeks ago, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend says gas prices spiked, and that may mean more people will stay home between June 30 and July 4.
More
Gas in the D.C. metro region now averages about $3.66 a gallon for unleaded regular, down 7 cents from last week.
But, when people were making their plans a few weeks ago, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend says gas prices spiked, and that may mean more people will stay home between June 30 and July 4.
More
Solar Outshines Wind Power For Residential Use
Maryland homeowners are increasingly getting their electricity from the sun, with thousands of people opting to go solar each year. “Solar energy is going gang-busters in Maryland,” said Ian Hines, communications and marketing manager of the Maryland Energy Administration.
Continue Reading...
Continue Reading...
TSA Defends Forcing Elderly Woman To Remove Adult Diaper
The Transportation Security Administration has given a vote of confidence to agents who ordered a 95-year-old woman to remove her adult diaper during a pat-down.
More »
More »
Frankie Valli Concert
Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Friday, June 24, 2011
What a great concert, what a great show, "Oh what a night"
The concert event held at Harrington Raceway and Casino was outstanding. The Casino staff were helpful, patient, professional, and understanding. Most concert ticket holders seemed to be from out of town and had no idea were they were going or how to get there. All of the Casino's restaurants were full with a 20 min wait time for a table, but the staff made it as painless as possible. Delaware State Police seemed to be everywhere, and were just as helpful if not more, than the casino staff. Thank you to all the staff that made the concert a success and a huge "KUDOS" and Thank you to DSP whose professional mannerisms made the event safe for everyone to enjoy.
Photo: Dominic Page with DSP Troopers, Photo taken by his brother Vincent Page
Latinos Prove To Be Influential In US Politics
Halfway through his third year in office, President Barack Obama has begun his re-election campaign. On June 14th, President Obama made a brief, yet symbolically important, visit to the United States’ territory of Puerto Rico in a pointed effort to reach out to Latino voters, an increasingly powerful electoral base.
President Obama understands the importance of the Latino vote in the upcoming elections and is making a determined effort to court the fastest growing demographic cohort in the U.S.
Latinos are scheduled to play an even more important role in the 2012 presidential election than in the past. Increasing 43 percent from 35,306,000 in 2000 to 50,478,000 as of 2010, the Hispanic population in the United States is at an all time high, comprising 16.3 percent of the total population. Mexicans make up the single most important body of Latinos living in the U.S., constituting 63 percent of the total Hispanic population with 31,798,000 people. There marks a significant relative decrease for the second largest Hispanic group in the U.S. — Puerto Ricans— who make up 9.2 percent of the total Latino population, with 4,624,000 people.[i] Despite the large drop off, Puerto Ricans, as well as smaller Hispanic groups, still represent a critical bloc of voters in a number of swing states.
In addition to their position as a large electoral group, Latinos have become increasingly prevalent in key government positions, yet are still underrepresented. The Hispanic population has become an influential group for both the Republican and Democratic Parties, and such voters will continue to increase their influence in shaping the future of this country.
BREAKING NEWS: Bachmann To Make Official 2012 Announcement
From Fox News
Debt Debate Puts Maryland Federal Workers on Edge
As the pitched battle over the nation’s debt crisis shifts to the White House, federal employees in Maryland are bracing for a series of benefit cuts they say would have a devastating effect on the state’s economy.
Months after more than 200,000 federal workers in Maryland were hit with a two-year pay freeze to help reduce a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, many say they now are worried lawmakers are eying government retirement plans and health benefits for cuts in the scramble to strike a deal to raise the debt ceiling.
The government has until Aug. 2 to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit or risk defaulting on the nation’s obligations. Republicans and many Democrats want significant budget cuts before they agree to lift that cap.
GOP’s Edge for 2011? – They Have Candidates
The pivotal 2011 General Assembly elections are more than four months away, but Virginia Republicans already have one important advantage over their Democratic Party rivals. Republicans have candidates running in at least 107 of the state’s 140 General Assembly districts. The GOP is well positioned to retain its comfortable majority in the House of Delegates and is mounting an all-out effort to grab control of the state Senate, where Democrats hold a fragile 22-18 majority.
Despite controlling the recent Senate redistricting process, Democrats so far have candidates in just 24 of 40 Senate districts and have no challengers for any Republican incumbents. The Democrats’ hopes of preserving a majority may rest largely on defending the districts they now represent.
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