AndreasThePimp

From the Scotsman:

MORE than a third of teachers who are allowed to retire early because of ill health take up new jobs, many of them teaching-related, new research has shown.

On the other hand,

The report reveals that the most common cause of early retirement is mental disorder. It also says that the support available to teachers experiencing ill health is "inadequate and insufficient".

And

Mike Finlayson, the chief executive of Teacher Support Scotland, said: "The lack of support for teachers and [the lack of] understanding of the complex causes which lead to their lack of wellbeing is damaging teachers' health and is detrimental to education in Scotland.

What do it mean? Your guess is as good as mine... On the other hand, there is the matter of "Care Schools" (which seem to be the equivalent of reform schools):

In one extreme case, drug and alcohol abuse was rife among pupils at the school where Fife teenager Karen Dewar's murderer was sent to. Bullying of staff was also commonplace.

Perhaps worth remembering this kind of thing when you hear about how much better things are in Europe. But 'mental disorder' as a cause for retirement? Where do I get mine..? Or do I just need to apply?

A follow up: this ran a few days earlier in the Scotsman - I have no idea how this compares to, saym New York City (by the by, the paper requires registration, I believe):

Teachers have been punched, head-butted and hit by chairs in assaults involving both primary and secondary school pupils. Many victims have had to take weeks off work with injuries ranging from cuts and bruises to broken arms and back injuries.

Eighty-nine school staff last year needed some form of medical treatment after assaults, with at least 36 requiring to go to hospital, according to a newspaper report.

But on the other hand there was this inneresting item in the same said paper:

The nature of policing in this country is very important, and there is a danger that would change if we routinely equipped officers with firearms. We showed during the G8 how important it is that we don't come out heavily armed taking a heavily defensive position" - Peter Wilson, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland

And

Of the 15,000 police officers in Scotland, about 750 - 5 per cent - are trained as firearms officers. All are voluntary and most spend three months seconded to firearms duties before returning to normal policing operations.

Apparently the logic is that if police are armed, then criminals will get guns - but I thought that gun control worked so well over there...

Telling the Truth, Willis-style

Says Oliver: "And of course, beloved GOP icon and Supreme Court justice Scalia went back in his time machine and created an alternate reality where it was the Gore team and not the Bush people who petitioned the Supreme Court in 2000."

And he links to this itme in the NY Post: November 22, 2005 -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says the high court did not inject itself into the 2000 presidential election. Speaking at the Time Warner Center last night, Scalia said: "The election was dragged into the courts by the Gore people. We did not go looking for trouble."

Can Willis get his facts mixed up or what..? What's his logo? Like kryptonite and Stupid?

Charleston was nice enough, didn't really see anything in Atlanta, and Amtrak sucks. Next time I take the bus. Who knew they still grew cotton in North Carolina? I also liked the SC license plate logo: Smiling Faces, Friendly Places, Unmixed Races. No no no, I made that up. Southern
women really almost are pretty than nothern women - at least the good-looking ones.

At last Willis Speaks! His topic: why the leftwing blogs have been relatively quiet about the riots in France.

Unlike the con blogs who are quick to jump all over something like this to point out one of their hobby horses (Socialism sucks! Islam sucks! Etc.), I can honestly say I don’t know nearly enough about French society to make any sort of conclusions about the event. Yet, all of a sudden the righties are experts in the subtleties of French life.

Subtleties... ponder that. He doesn't "know nearly enough about French society to make any sort of conclusions about the event." The event... Nearly two weeks of rioting all over the damn country and he calls it an event, as if it were Woodstock or Altamont. But you have lots of opinions about who and what sucks in America, dontcha? I know very little about African culture, but I know that the mass murder that's occured over there from time to time is definitely wrong.
Well, there you go. Willis admits that ignorance is an excuse. Explains a lot, doesn't it?
By the by, he was claiming voter fraud in Virginia earlier today, apparently because "News 7 has received calls from several voters in at least four different precincts who say their votes for Tim Kaine were not recorded or took several attempts to go through." Proof? We don't need no stinkin' proof! We don't know nearly enough about proof!

Oh my - a trip to Charleston by Amtrak. I hope I that when I wake up I still have shoes.
Tired. Not intoxicated but working on it... Oyez.

According to Goofy

When you stand against gay marriage, you’re standing with the Klan

Ergo, Orthodox Jews = Klansmen.
By the by, skimming the last week of Willis's site turns up nothing about those 'disturbances' going on in France. I wonder why... can't blame Bush or DeLay, I guess...

From AP My Way News:

The violence, which was concentrated in neighborhoods with large African and Muslim populations but has since spread, has forced France to address the simmering anger of its suburbs, where immigrants and their French-born children live on the margins of society.

From
Yahoo News:

The violence — originally concentrated in neighborhoods northeast of Paris with large immigrant populations — is forcing France to confront anger long-simmering in its suburbs, where many Africans and their French-born children live on society's margins, struggling with unemployment, poor housing, racial discrimination, crime and a lack of opportunity.

Penguins is practically the same as chickens...

Rioting Spreads From Paris Across France, says Yahoo News this morning. Oddly enough, though, it doesn't say who is doing the rioting...

Nation Review Online has an article by Robert Bork called Conservatives Can Rejoice In Alito. Out of curiosity I checked The Great Goofy's site to see if he's taking this as evidence that Alito is a dangerous lunatic. Not yet, but I won't be surprised if he does later.

Instead of Republicans and Democrats, how about Republicans and Contrarepublicans? Tax cuts during a period of surpluses? NO! WE MUST SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY! Reform Social Security before it goes bankrupt? NO! SOCIAL SECURITY IS FINE! Hold up the President's nominees as too radical? YES/NO! THE PRESIDENT HAS/HASN'T THE RIGHT TO NOMINATE SOMEONE WHO HE BELIEVES/CLAIMS IS QUALIFIED AND THE SENATE MUST/CAN'T JUST GIVE/DENY THE NOMINEE AN UP OR DOWN VOTE! (Hat tip to Jeff Goldstein or someone like that, most likely Goldstein...)
Tired...

So Sen Harry Reid called for a secret session in the Senate about... oh, I dunno what, something or other, but isn't that the same thing that awful Joe McCarthy used to do, holding secret sessions?

Also, to those who are fussing that Samuel Alito is outside the mainstream: your idea of the mainstream has everything to do with what you want people to believe and nothing to do with what the majority of Americans do believe. You think otherwise? Fine with me - just run candidates who openly call for higher taxes, who openly say that we need gun control because most Americans just can't be trusted to own a gun and defend themselves, who call for numeric quotas for race and the like, who think American troops outside the country should be under the command of the UN, and who, by the by, think our judges should base their rulings on what the law is turning into in, say, France or Germany. You remember the Germans, don't you? The Kaiser, Hindenburg, von Schliecher, Hitler, kill the Jews, Lebensraum, Strength through Joy, Czechoslovakia is a natural part of Germany, etc. You remember the French, don't you? Great wine, poor hygiene, ugly hookers, "The Jews are in the cellar, please don't disturb the wine..." (A great line from Bobcat Goldthwait on Unhappily ever After.)
Oh yes, Mr and Ms Democrat Liberal DU Know-It-All, please tell the voters what you really think they want to hear.