Some random thoughts:

I am very worried about our still don’t have a contract at school, and the Board of Education not bending at all. The big problem is that the wives of two Board members are teachers, so those members are forbidden by law from voting on teacher contracts. Why is that? No logical reason I can imagine, except typical anti-teacher laws from the state legislature. Why else would they forbid teachers from striking, which is the only tool we have to fight intractable Boards of Education?

I still do not understand why George W. Bush is ahead in the polls. The man lied his entire first term in office, invading Iraq against the wishes of the Pentagon, his own Secretary of State, most of our allies, and the United Nations. He had absolutely no plan to secure peace after overthrowing Saddam Hussein, so people are dying daily in that poor country. But it did not matter so long as we have access to Iraqi oil and Halliburton made a financial killing on the war. Who cares that the war is costing us billions of dollars added to the large federal deficit Bush created with his ridiculous tax cut? And what about the job losses the past four years, the most in any presidency since Herbert Hoover? Why isn’t this man so far behind in the polls he is looking at the bottom of Kerry’s feet?

In his blog, Frank Denton recommended a symphonic progressive rock band from Sweden called The Flower Kings. I love progressive rock, especially the symphonic variety (think Yes or early Genesis), so I sampled their music at Amazon.uk and ordered their live cd. Now I am anxiously awaiting its arrival.