Thursday, September 03, 2009

Act in Haste

...repent in leisure. Parents caution children to think about what they are doing before they do something that will result in a bad outcome either for themselves or others.

Marketing departments learn to do it before recommending the go-ahead on a new product. Business executives learn to do it before major corporate decisions. Slow down. Think it through. Consider the alternatives. What's the worst case scenario? Has everything been accounted for?

Now, consider the Obama administration. Is there any policy decision that isn't critical to enact immediatly lest the world collapse? How many of these rash decisions are necessitating "re-thinking" or "re-phrasing"?

The latest, of course is the Messiah worship, education and indoctrination session scheduled for next Tuesday's school menu. The outrage is certainly predictable to anyone with a bit of life experience. Is there no mature mind in all of the White House? Is there nobody in a position of authority who actually knows what the laws of the land are with regard to their own fiefdom?

Read this retrenchment on the "lesson plans":

Take a Memo to "Self"

OK, I'm willing to acknowledge that the revised phrasing is an improvement over the ill-advised first cut. But slowly go back and read the last paragraph from the piece:

Christina Erland Culver, former deputy assistant secretary for education, said presidents have traditionally addressed classrooms on the first day of school, but the problem with the event was the accompanying materials from the Department of Education.

"That's where they kind of got into a slippery spot. Federal statute denies any authority to the Department of Education to provide any kind of curriculum or anything that can be passed down to the state, and that's part of the statute forming the Department of Education. So they kinda got themselves into this mess because they didn't really understand some of the key legal roles or the dos and don'ts at the federal Department of Ed," she said.


They don't even know what the enabling statutes of their own department prohibit!

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