@WrenArcher @Wallflower
I really love the pictures you guys post especially the flowers, but I almost never comment on those. It's a personality flaw, my father was a photographer and I had a camera in my face my whole first 17 years and I tend to cringe at photographs. But I want you to know I do appreciate them.

Just posting my feline-friendly lap, Cecil and Reese

While nobody was watching, Dolly Parton donated a buttload of money to the East Tennessee Children's Hospital, to the point that they renamed the hospital after her. The hospital director made a comment that no child entering the hospital will ever get less than the complete care they deserve.

I feel blessed to live in a time where global thermonuclear war is not our greatest fear. Assholes in riot gear are scary enough, thanks.

Back to Ben's Place
@TheBreadmonkey

Good coffee, great breakfast, 1970 prices

We had breakfast this morning at a place called Ben's Place (not @TheBreadmonkey ) in Bean Station Tennessee. Good food, simple, with 1970s pricing. We had two large breakfasts with the works and coffee (the coffee was pretty good) and paid $15 plus tip. That is not each, that is the entire bill.

So as of last Thursday, I was given a voucher from Housing First, formerly called Section 8. (this is a US thing for poor people to get housing). But there are limitations on what area I can use it in, and I have only 60 days to get a signed lease (and the office has to approve it before I can sign it). I have a listing of landlords, mostly phone numbers only. I have a very high rejection quotient, which means if I call two or three places and get told they don't have openings, I start panicking. I have already done that much. If anybody knows of any way you can actually help, please let me know.

I'm really out of it today. I've been running every day since my wife's surgery Tuesday. We ran somewhere after the surgery, Dutch Brothers and Freddy's, and we've gone out every day since. Yesterday I had two errands of my own to run, did not go out to eat. I'm just wiped out. Suzanne wanted to go out today and I just can't. I went to sleep right after 2:00, woke up at 10:30, thought I was awake and got up and did some morning ritual stuff & fell right back in my chair. Next time I woke up it was 16:50. I managed to go take a shower. I fell back in my chair. (I sleep in my chair, I haven't been able to sleep in a bed since my accident in April 2020.) and Suzanne wanted to know where we're going out today. I told her I just can't. She is reluctantly agreeing, I hope she's just disappointed, not angry. No spoons or any other utensils.

@AutisticInnovator
I should have just giving you his Mastodon... @britt

mintCast is looking for new cohosts. It is a big ask, as we have meetings every Saturday afternoon 3:00 p.m. ET and the podcast is on alternate Sundays also at 3:00 p.m. ET. The meetings last from 45 minutes to 2 hours, the podcast can last over 3 hours if we've got a lot to talk about.

We are looking for special people with Linux experience, we are diversity friendly. I think Dani Rabbit (Danielle Foré) has been a guest on the show twice if memory serves. We are all a bunch of crazy liberals, although we don't spend a lot of time talking politics on the air (but we're much easier to catch off the air).

If you're interested, write mintcast@mintcast.org

Previous positive experience with Linux Mint is preferred but not required. We talk about everything in open source.

mintCast has been published as an audio podcast (at a minimum) since November 2008.

In response to this edict from the Trump administration giving every school district only 10 days to respond, one brave district superintendent wrote this. (Name was withheld for obvious reasons..)

Still Not Signing: A Superintendent's Response to the Department of Education's Anti-DEI Ultimatum

The federal government gave us ten days to sign away our values. Here’s our answer.

April 8, 2025

To Whom It May (Unfortunately) Concern at the U.S. Department of Education:

Thank you for your April 3 memorandum, which I read several times — not because it was legally persuasive, but because I kept checking to see if it was satire. Alas, it appears you are serious.

You’ve asked me, as superintendent of a public school district, to sign a "certification" declaring that we are not violating federal civil rights law — by, apparently, acknowledging that civil rights issues still exist. You cite Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, then proceed to argue that offering targeted support to historically marginalized students is somehow discriminatory.

That’s not just legally incoherent — it’s a philosophical Möbius strip of bad faith.

Let me see if I understand your logic:

If we acknowledge racial disparities, that’s racism.
If we help English learners catch up, that’s favoritism.
If we give a disabled child a reading aide, we’re denying someone else the chance to struggle equally.
And if we train teachers to understand bias, we’re indoctrinating them — but if we train them to ignore it, we’re “restoring neutrality”?
How convenient that your sudden concern for “equal treatment” seems to apply only when it’s used to silence conversations about race, identity, or inequality.

Let’s talk about our English learners. Would you like us to stop offering translation services during parent-teacher conferences? Should we cancel bilingual support staff to avoid the appearance of “special treatment”? Or would you prefer we just teach all content in English and hope for the best, since acknowledging linguistic barriers now counts as discrimination?

And while we’re at it — what’s your official stance on IEPs? Because last I checked, individualized education plans intentionally give students with disabilities extra support. Should we start removing accommodations to avoid offending the able-bodied majority? Maybe cancel occupational therapy altogether so no one feels left out?

If a student with a learning disability receives extended time on a test, should we now give everyone extended time, even if they don’t need it? Just to keep the playing field sufficiently flat and unthinking?

Your letter paints equity as a threat. But equity is not the threat. It’s the antidote to decades of failure. Equity is what ensures all students have a fair shot. Equity is what makes it possible for a child with a speech impediment to present at the science fair. It’s what helps the nonverbal kindergartner use an AAC device. It’s what gets the newcomer from Ukraine the ESL support she needs without being left behind.

And let’s not skip past the most insulting part of your directive — the ten-day deadline. A national directive sent to thousands of districts with the subtlety of a ransom note, demanding signatures within a week and a half or else you’ll cut funding that supports... wait for it... low-income students, disabled students, and English learners.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. A moral victory for bullies and bureaucrats everywhere.

So no, we will not be signing your “certification.”

We are not interested in joining your theater of compliance.

We are not interested in gutting equity programs that serve actual children in exchange for your political approval.

We are not interested in abandoning our legal, ethical, and educational responsibilities to satisfy your fear of facts.

We are interested in teaching the truth.

We are interested in honoring our students’ identities.

We are interested in building a school system where no child is invisible, and no teacher is punished for caring too much.

And yes — we are prepared to fight this. In the courts. In the press. In the community. In Congress, if need be.

Because this district will not be remembered as the one that folded under pressure.

We will be remembered as the one that stood its ground — not for politics, but for kids.

Sincerely,

District Superintendent

Still Teaching. Still Caring. Still Not Signing.

Pretty please, if you're going to post a link to something, at least tell me what it is you're wanting me to see/hear/read. If I've recently unfollowed you, that is probably the reason.

@RationalizedInsanity
I am asking for an update on whether you've been able to restore or replace any of your stolen equipment.

Okay, it happened. I got a message from Nicole. I did the intelligent thing and blocked her. She hasn't found my other account yet though.

I'm not doomscrolling. I'm just scrolling, and doom keeps showing up.