Forget The Polar Bears...Where Will The Elves Live?

Remember the politics of fear. Those evil conservatives trying to frighten people. Certainly it would be wrong to frighten the children. I mean politics is something for people who are mature right?

Well I guess I'm wrong again. The people at Build-a-Bear want your kids to know that global warming is real. Well actually they want to indoctrinate your children into the Church of Global Warming? I didn't realize that the North Pole will be melted in just two days!!!! Help Al Gore HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you really think a children's toy should have a political message? Isn't it Ironic that they decided to call the video "An Uplifting Christmas Story." Should this be part of a holiday message? Wouldn't an uplifting Christmas story be something about helping the hungry or the homeless? Maybe the polar bears could realize that they have hidden strengths they never knew they had.

Keep in mind that the scientific basis for global warming projections is now under scrutiny as never before. The principal source of these projections is produced by a small group of scientists at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU), affiliated to the University of East Anglia.

I mean what if George Bush had used flawed projections and lost and/or destroyed data to justify a war? People wouldn't tolerate it. Hey wait. Don't some people say that George Bush did exactly that. Weren't they outraged? Yet these same people are perfectly OK with defending global warming.

Doesn't it bother you that (a) the scientists have been manipulating the raw temperature figures to show a relentlessly rising global warming trend; (b) they have consistently refused outsiders access to the raw data; (c) the scientists have been trying to avoid freedom of information requests; and (d) they have been discussing ways to prevent papers by dissenting scientists being published in learned journals.

If you are one to follow the money, are you not bothered that Al Gore and many others in the Global Warming crowd stand to make a HUGE amount of money once Cap and Trade laws are passed? Are you aware that Carbon trading is a potential TRILLION dollar business and you need only look as far back as Enron to understand what is going on with this scam.

It appears one key player is Sir Maurice Strong is on the board of directors of the Chicago Climate Exchange, Wikipedia-described as “the world’s first and North America’s only legally binding greenhouse gas emission registry reduction system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil.”.

in March 1996, corporate officers concluded that the federal cash cow was about to run dry, they took action: Between that date and October 1996, seven corporate officers–including Maurice strong–sold off $15.3 million in personal shares in the company, at top market value. On Oct. 20, 1996–a Sunday–the company issued a press release, announcing for the first time, that DOE funding would be vastly scaled back, and reported the bad news on a conference call with stockbrokers.

By early 1997, furious stockholders had filed a class action suit against the company and its directors. Ironically, one of the class action lawyers had tangled with Maurice strong in another insider trading case, involving a Swiss company called AZL Resources, chaired by Strong, who was also a lead shareholder. The AZL case closely mirrored Molten Metal, and in the end, Strong and the other AZL partners agreed to pay $5 million to dodge a jury verdict, when eyewitness evidence surfaced of Strong’s role in scamming the value of the company stock up into the stratosphere, before selling it off.

So let me get this straight, these are the people I need to TRUST? Just to keep your answer honest how about substituting Bush's name for Al Gore's name and see how certain you would be that we are doing the right thing.


You be the judge. Do you think it's OK to bring children into a debate that is beyond their ability to understand? Children that age lack the maturity to deal with such complex issues and can be easily manipulated. Are you OK with that?



There is a movement a foot to boycott the company. Too bad because I actually like the Build-a-bear bears. If you believe in something strongly enough then you should be willing to risk everything. Obviously the people at Build-A-Bear feel strongly about global warming I just wished they had manifested their belief in a different way. Perhaps they could show their commitment by using only organic and/or recycled material for all their products. Of course this would add to the cost of their products but it would show their commitment to the cause.

Perhaps it might be nice for the Build-a-Bear people to commit to making their products here in America rather than China. After all China is the world’s largest emitter of CO2. Try naming a U.S. city whose air quality is even remotely as bad as Beijing’s, or an American river as polluted as the Han. Then again if Build-a-Bear products were produced here in the United States they would cost more AND they would have to provide health care to their employees.

Then & Now

Did you know kids now a-days sleep with their cell phones? I was shocked. It shows how totally out of touch with reality I am. Perhaps I should say I’m out of sync with an Ipod world.

I have students who feel as though their hand was created simply to cradle their cell phone during the day. Now it appears that the addiction is far worse than I first suspected.

Today I had a guest speaker come from Westwood college talking to my students about they should consider going to Westwood. He was very amusing and kept the kids focused and involved in his presentation. I was understood what he was talking about having been raised poor in a big family. I laughed when he talked about placing a nickel on my record player needle so my record wouldn’t skip. My students couldn’t imagine it. He also talked about things that kids could understand like current music, sports, and hanging out at the mall.

Sadly many people don’t like teaching the kind of kids I teach. For people who are about my age, imagine “Sweat Hogs”. Teachers generally like teaching the upper echelon of student. The kind who are accepted to Yale, Princeton, and Harvard and wax poetically about the classical literature they read on their own time. They pat themselves on the back and say, “Look how I have inspired my student’s to greatness.”

People who teach Vocational students like I do, realize that these over-achievers will bloom wherever they are planted. These kids won the lottery at conception given their IQ and parentage. The whole Nature vs. Nurture argument comes into play. Is the kid with the IQ a victim of his own environment when born to parents who are in and out of jail, drug addicted, and the child is born into poverty? Our administrators tell us to ignore the scientific fact that innate IQ cannot discernibly be changed in any permanent sense and they ask us to make scholars out of kids who have less than a stellar IQ. When we seem to be able to fashion a silk purse from a sow’s ear we are looked down upon as failures and some administrators and teachers question our ability to teach.

For me, I feel blessed to have these students in my class. In the bell curve of life, I will statistically come in contact far more with people with average IQ’s than Genius. It is far more important that I get them ready to hit the ground running when they graduate and make a real effort to help them fashion a reality based on the skills and abilities that they do posses. My students may not go to Harvard but they can go to a community college to learn to manage an office for a lawyer. They may not have straight A’s and do calculus in their head but they can learn not just function in the real world but succeed there. We put so much effort on college and forget how many people went on to success lacking that paper. What someone lacks in book smarts they might posses in people smarts and you can’t teach that in a lecture hall in an Ivy League school.

My kids deserve to be encouraged and told of opportunities for post secondary training and scholarships but not every teacher makes sure that they are exposed to this. It is for this reason that I make sure that my students hear, “I want you to be successful.” “I believe in you.” “Here’s a different path to your success.”
It is for this reason that I bring someone from a branch of the military to my school as well as a Vocational School or Technical College to speak to my students about options. Some have gone their whole life and no one has ever even explained to them that there were options. One year I had someone from Le Cordon Blue and another year from Coosa Valley Technical College. I offer to look over college application essays and scholarship applications.

At the end of the day the speaker said to me, “You can tell you have a really good relationship with these kids. They really love you.” He told me that when he talked to one of the Guidance Counselors that the she told him that I was very involved with my kids. I am and they are my kids. Maybe one will go on to Yale or Harvard one day. Maybe not, but I will still be proud of them if they are working towards their own rainbow that doesn’t harm others.

A funny incident happened this morning before my speaker came. A student came to me and said, “Ms. Cope, I brought you something. I know you love coupons.” I answered that I did. What she did next took me by surprise. She handed me an Entertainment book. I have wanted one of them. I used to buy these when I lived in Richmond. Michael and I used them all the time to go to different venues like the Science Museum or the Children’s Museum at buy one get one prices.

When Darryl and I moved own here I asked him if we could get one. He said he didn’t think we’d use it because most of the coupons were for Atlanta and we were living in Rome. That made sense. Still I remembered that there were coupons that I could use at places like McDonalds and Burger King. I figured in the long run we’d still save money but Darryl wasn’t convinced that we’d save enough money.

When we moved to Cartersville I didn’t ask but I would often look at the book when I would go to CVS. I’d remember the places I used to visit and thought if only I had one I’d see more of Atlanta. I feel like Atlanta might as well be Los Angeles. I’ve seen very little of Atlanta. I’ve seen The Underground, Olympic park, and the Coke Museum. I saw a little of the High Museum of Art because I won tickets. I saw the Governor’s Mansion one year at Christmas. So much I want to see but I don’t want to spend full price to do it. If we had buy one get one free coupons I’d be more likely to go.

Our move to Acworth made me want the Entertainment book more. I’d touch the book like an old friend I’d skim through the pages asking Darryl, “Do you think we should buy it?” Which is code word for “Can I buy this?” It’s easier to hear the words “No” to that question. That’s because I haven’t asked directly for it so I haven’t been turned down for something I really want. The predictable answer happens each time. “What do you need that for? “ or “How much is that anyway? Why do you want it?” Translated to Cathy speak the simple answer is “NO”. Why explain. I will either hear that we can afford the attraction without the coupon (pre job loss) or I will hear that the gas we would use would mean that we wouldn’t save anything. Which might as well be we can’t afford to go to that place so why are you asking. Oh the subtle language that men and women speak. Darryl thinks it’s only me that speaks this secret language but after all “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.”


These are the blog contests I entered today.

Prizes (10): Five Stouffer's free product coupons.
Here are the blog contests I entered today:

Prize: $25 Build A Bear workshop gift card.

Prize: $100 voucher for a pair of eyeglasses from EyeBuyDirect.com [excludes designer frames and sunglasses].

Prize: $100 EyeBuyDirect.com gift card [excludes designer frames or sunglasses].

Prizes (2): $25 Kroger gift card.

I Am An American Patriot

Talk about being grateful. Today the Army National Guard Recruiter stopped by to give me an award for my support of our soldiers. Wow what an honor. She presented me the award in front of my class.

Today I was pretty busy getting articles ready for my Thrifty Maven blog. I’m trying to do a series of articles on how to celebrate Valentine’s Day without breaking the bank.

Today’s a kind of sad day. First the father of Officer Morgan has passed away and will be laid to rest today. Officer Morgan is a wonderful woman and I’ve had the pleasure of teaching one of her son’s as well as her older son’s baby’s mother. What a difficult time it must be for her. Trixie, is a wonderful person, great co-worker, loving Mom, and a doting Grandmother and I wouldn’t wish this pain on her for even a moment.

We also lost another co-worker this week. We called her Ms. Candy. She was our cafeteria manager and it was a job she seemed to love. Feeding the kids and making sure that the food served her was not just healthy but very tasty was very important to her. I usually don’t eat school lunch but one day she asked me why I didn’t. She told me that she would get me to try eating it yet. Once I did I was hooked. I loved her cheese buns and I understood why the kids and the teachers were so crazy about them. They were soooooo very tasty.

Last year she was diagnosed with cancer. She seemed to have fought it and won some time. This week she passed away. One of the cafeteria workers told me that her husband died about twelve hours later. Our principal acted as one of the pall bearers at her funeral today.

On the economic front recession-battered employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January, the most since the end of 1974, and catapulted the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent.. I’m grateful to have my job. I see that the city of Canton has laid off 14 percent of its workforce in an attempt to balance a budget shortfall of $1.1 million to $1.2 million. Clark Atlanta University laid off 100 people Friday and canceled classes until Tuesday, according to school officials. Seventy faculty members and 30 other staffers were laid off. Clayton County schools with a surplus of about 150 teachers. That means that 150 teachers need to retire or resign by April 5 or face losing their job next school year. In addition to teachers, the district also has a surplus of 102 other workers, including three assistant principals, 19 counselors, 18 physical education teachers, 14 middle school graduation coaches and 38 kindergarten paraprofessionals. This is all so very frightening.

I did win a $5 Chevron gift card. Every little bit helps you know. I HATE when Darryl opens my wins. It doesn't leave me the fun of opening up my wins.

I'm entering more blog contests and here they are:

Prize: $25 Build-A-Bear Workshop gift card.

Prizes (3): Audiobook copy of A Long Stone's Throw by Alphie McCourt.

Prize: Roku digital video player and six-month Netflix membership

Prize: Code for a box of personalized Fruit Rollups.

Prize: Coupon good for a Pizza Hut Tuscani Lasagna Meal.

Prize: 5-pack assortment of musical and voice recordable Hallmark cards.

We're still watching two episodes of Dallas every night. Tonight Sue Ellen had her baby after having a car accident when she escaped from the Sanitarium.