Hi there folks! Sorry for the extended absence, I've been a wee bit busy lately. I had to spend a few days down in Nashville, and had a couple other things going on. But rest assured, the next episode is coming! Tomorrow, to be exact. So stay tuned!
Hi there! Tonight I bring you the eighth episode of The Chris Kaelin Show. Lots to talk about, so let's get to it!
TAKE IT EASY, KIDS: Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning, and his chat with host Chris Wallace was fairly interesting. One major highlight was Mr. Gates' insistence that those criticizing President Obama on his handling of the crisis in Ukraine should "tone it down". He told Wallace that Russia's recent trek into Ukraine was, in all likelihood, unavoidable. He reminded Wallace--and viewers--that in the wake of Russian president Vladimir Putin's excursion into Georgia (the country), nobody criticized former President George W. Bush. Point, Gates. In fact, it seems to me that the only difference between Georgia and Ukraine is, a Democrat who is despised by the Republicans occupies the White House. The GOP is always looking for a reason to assail Obama. In all fairness, he's sure given them plenty of ammunition, and not every bit of criticism is undeserved. But the fact is, Gates is right--Putin would have gone into Ukraine regardless of who was in the White House, and regardless of missile defense systems and threats of sanctions and whatever else we can threaten the Russian government with. Of course, nobody's going to listen to Robert Gates. After all, he's no longer SecDef, and why would anyone let someone of his stature and intellect keep them from a good time bashing the president? But if the people in Washington won't listen, perhaps we ought to. Because nobody called Bush "naive" the last time this happened. I WANT YOUR VOTE: Also on Fox News Sunday, Senator Rand Paul appeared. Go figure, right? Actually, this time, he kind of made sense. Other than the fact that he managed to answer questions with. . .well, no-answers, he DID rebuff Chris Wallace's attempt to criticize him for his recent lunch with Attorney General Eric Holder, easily one of Rand Paul's least-favorite people. Even though Holder is a defendant, along with Obama and several others, in a lawsuit over the whole NSA thing filed by Paul, they saw fit to enjoy each other's company atlunch to discuss the one thing Paul agrees with the administration on. Yes, folks, you read that right, Rand Paul actually agrees with the Obama administration on something! Specifically, the restoration of voting rights for felons convicted of non-violent crimes. I worked in corrections. I know what it's like on the inside. I've heard about what it's like to be outside the stun fence once you've been in. Many people wind up back inside. Why? Because they can't make it on the outside. There are laws that make sure of it. Employers cringe at felony records. Felons can't vote, can't possess a firearm, they can't do many things. So I agree that it's about time we took a step back and reevaluated these laws. I'm not so sure about giving felons their right to possess a firearm back, but if we're going to try to do something about our recidivism rates, restoring voting rights for non-violent felons is a great step in the right direction. My only worry is that it's being done for political purposes, that Rand Paul and Eric Holder and whoever else figures that those felons with their voting rights restored will start voting Republican or Democrat based on whoever helped pass the law granting those rights back. This needs to be done out of a genuine concern for the continued successful reintegration of convicted felons into society post-incarceration, and not an attempt to score brownie points for the party. So I say, Senator Paul, go for it. Just do it with society's interests in mind, not the party's. THOSE DARN MILLENNIALS: There's a new survey out that says that millennials are not attached to religion or politics, but network through social media, have trust issues and a lot of bills, and don't want to get married anytime soon. On the plus side, we're pretty optimistic! Millennial is defined as anyone in the 18-33 age group; at 30, I fall into the higher end of this group. We've been called selfish and entitled because we're brimming with self-confidence. We play well with others, but want to get that promotion more than you do, but we're also not satisfied with our jobs, so we find a new one all the time. Actually, not every millennial is like that. I'm not self-confident, in fact I have ZERO confidence, but I have an ego large enough to warrant its own ZIP code. I prefer to work alone, but I'll play with others when I need to, as long as they understand that I'm not the most normal person on Earth--and in my experience, it's my fellow millennials who have an issue with that. It could be because I dislike Facebook, only use Twitter for the show here, have no interest in Pinterist, have no desire to Instagram anything, and I only set up this blog to inflict my opinion on others--see, the ego thing. I like getting promoted, too, and in fact just promoted myself today, in my own little world where I am king. . .and the only resident. We millennials think we're going to change the world, and we've already started--Mark Zuckerberg's one of us. Because we're so self-confident, we think we're destined for greatness, and get huge egos in the process. Because we quit our jobs every other day, we're probably going to end up unhirable by the time we're in our 40's. Many of us tend to choose the cheap thrill of a one-night stand, and run the risk of catching an STD/catching a sex crime charge/catching a fist to the face of an angry boyfriend or girlfriend (choose one), and THEN decide to get married. But because many of us live at home until after college, that one-night stand's going to be hard to come by. But there's always Facebook! And we text--a lot. I have a point to all this. Ninety-five percent of the above was said with tongue firmly planted in cheek. What IS true is everything I wrote about me (there goes my ego again) and that we millennials know what we want and are willing to do what it takes to get it, yet at the same time, we are so difficult to please. And truth be told, despite all the studies and research and whatnot, I don't think any of us really know what makes us tick. We're chock full of ambition and optimism and possess the wherewithal to make things happen so we can get what we want, which is probably where folks get the idea that we're self-centered. Are we? We can deny it all day long but at the end of the day, probably. We're impatient. And we've created that monster. We want something and we want it NOW, be it a promotion or the latest iPhone. We are the captains of the ship called "technology" and yet it dominates our lives. Whereas those before us would take the front page of the newspaper in the bathroom with us, we take our phones. We've managed to influence society in a way not seen since the Greatest Generation, and yet we only see things in the immediate sense. I'm not your typical millennial. Thankfully. I know I'm destined to achieve some great thing, but ego aside, there's a difference: I don't define greatness by how much I've contributed to the improvement of society, I define greatness by how much I've contributed to the improvement of ME. I don't mean that in a self-centered manner, by any means, but I can't control the way the millennial generation changes society around me. I can only control my own little slice of the pie. And I'm perfectly content with that. Good morning folks! A quick TCKS update: I forgot to add the link to the Courier-Journal database I used to put the chemical leak information. The link is below, as is a link to C-J reporter James Bruggers' outstanding article about the matter. I also ought to add that the data used to glean the "worst case" scenario is based on 2013 figures.
The link to the database is here: http://datacenter.courier-journal.com/interactives/2014/dangerzones/ The link to the article is here: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20140307/GREEN/303070095/ I just saw an interview with Rand Paul on Fox News Sunday that I'm going to comment on later. Until then, have a great day! Welcome to the latest episode of The Chris Kaelin Show! Sorry I've been away, I've been pretty busy with a few things, school work and painting and the like. But I'm back, and ready to throw my opinion out there! So without further adieu, I present to you the seventh episode!
STILL IN THE GAME: Today's News and Tribune has an article about the latest attempt to start a charter school in Jeffersonville. There have been several attempts over the past few years to establish the York School of Discovery, a charter elementary school, in the Greater Clark County Schools area, specifically Jeffersonville, but each time, the folks at Ball State University that bear responsibility for certifying charters has shot their application down. This time will be different, they say, and they have a few familiar names to help out: Stephen Daeschner, Jim Sexton, Becka Christensen, and Eric Schansberg. Daeschner is a former superintendent of both GCCS and, before that, Jefferson County Public Schools, who was sent packing by the school board in 2012. At the same time, they demoted and reassigned Sexton, at the time principal at Jeffersonville High School and a principal in Louisville under Daeschner, who made some great gains in the school's academic progress, but managed to upset a few people in the process. Christensen was on the school board at the same time, a reform-minded member who unfortunately couldn't break the cronyism that permeates the board. Schansberg is an IUS economics professor and member of the Libertarian Party who thinks every aspect of life ought to be sold to the private sector; he is the president of the board trying to establish this school, which is named after a slave who helped Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition. According to the N&T, Schansberg is board president, Christensen is a board member, and Daeschner and Sexton were consultants, although the paperwork evidently names Sexton as potentially becoming principal. The whole idea of the school has changed, from an elementary school to a middle school. They changed their focus from some teaching form known as "paideia", in which students are essentially treated like they're in college (or at least that's my interpretation) regardless of age level, to focusing on preparing kids for high school, although if you read the article (a link is provided below) and research paideia (a link to that's provided, too!) you'll discover that the idea's still there. Basically, the only things that stayed the same was the name. Like I've said before on here, I have no issue with school choice. If they think a charter's going to do a better job of prepping kids for high school than a public school, go for it. But I have a few questions: 1. The big question--why is Jim Sexton being allowed to work on this? He is currently still a Greater Clark employee, having been reassigned to New Washington High School, although he is presently on a leave of absence. Did he take a leave of absence to work on this? Is it possible that he gave a different reason to conceal his work on this? Is he being paid during this leave of absence? Allegations of being "mean" towards teachers notwithstanding, he did a pretty good job at JHS, and I personally think he got shafted in that whole drama a couple years ago, but I have an issue with a current school district employee working on a charter project. 2. The article, written by Jerod Clapp, quotes Daeschner as saying it "made more sense" to establish a charter middle school, so they could work on better preparing kids for high school, and beyond. Again, that's just peachy, but does Daeschner and Company not realize that the kids are going to go from an "ineffective" public school, to a "more effective" charter, then right back into an "ineffective" public school? Daeschner in the article pegged the middle schools--of which there are four: River Valley, Parkview, Charlestown, and New Washington's junior high section--as being "15 percent below" elementary schools when it comes to ISTEP scores. Obviously, this means that Greater Clark needs to step their game up, something I won't hold my breath on, but do they expect GCCS to suddenly "step up", as it were, and improve themselves? As long as the present bunch of people are running GCCS, that's not likely. Do they expect performance at the high schools to improve once their kids start entering the high schools? I suppose only time will tell on that one. Maybe it does make sense, but as long as there's ONE middle school charter and four public middle schools, and as long as the present group's running GCCS, I don't hold out hope for any change. 3. Just where are they going to find a building? Clark County tried to buy the old Corden Porter building at the corner of Court and Meigs Avenues a few years ago, but the board shot them down because they didn't like the county's idea for the building--it would have held the county work release center, so the work release space could be turned into jail population housing. So if GCCS wouldn't let the county buy it to house work release, they darn sure aren't going to let York come in, especially with the names Daeschner and Sexton attached. The state essentially makes school boards give preference to charter schools when it comes to selling old school buildings, which isn't exactly kosher, but GCCS retains ownership through an in-house property holding company, which probably isn't kosher either. 4. Why was York's applications previously denied? The article quotes Schansberg as saying that the Ball State folks didn't give a specific reason. But they've tried three times before, so history is working against them, although York DOES have a shift in focus on their side, which begs another question: is that shift enough? I suspect Daeschner and Company have an ulterior motive: the board shafted them, so they're going to return the favor. Understandable, perhaps. Could this work? Maybe. Could it backfire? Maybe. Only time will tell. I'm going to do some snooping around and see what I can come up with; more to follow. The News and Tribune article can be found here: http://www.newsandtribune.com/local/x787206020/Charter-proposal-contains-familiar-Greater-Clark-names Some gouge on "paideia" can be found here: http://www.paideia.org/ Credit: The original article was written by Jerod Clapp and appeared in the March 8 edition of the News and Tribune. IT'S TOXIC: The Courier-Journal just released an article discussing toxic chemicals in the Louisville area. This comes a day or so after a butadiene leak at a Louisville chemical plant, although I don't think the article was inspired by the leak. There are a couple things that are telling in this article. The article had an accompanying interactive piece on chemical dangers in the area. There are several that pose a danger to those of us who inhabit the Sunny Side. They are: The B.E. Payne Water Treatment Plant on River Road. A worst-case chlorine leak there will affect up to the Ohio River at Utica. The Crescent Hill Water Treatment Plant on Frankfort Avenue. A worst-case anhydrous ammonia leak there will affect the eastern half of Jeffboat, the Arctic Springs neighborhood, and comes close to endangering both Parkview Middle School and Bridgepoint Elementary School. The Jeffersonville danger zone runs from Penn Street east to roughly Allison Lane, from the river north to, at its highest point, Charlestown Avenue. The JBS Swift plant on Story Avenue. A worst-case anhydrous ammonia leak there will affect a huge chunk of Jeffersonville and Clarksville. The danger zone in Jeffersonville runs up Tenth Street to about Roods Lane; Eighth Street to roughly Perrin Lane; Utica Pike to a point between Pawnee Drive and Virginia Avenue; and Spring Street/Hamburg Pike up to Walnut Ridge Cemetary. The Clarksville danger zone runs up I-65 and US-31 to just north of the Eastern Boulevard exit; Brown Station Way to roughly Randolph Avenue; and Harrison Avenue west to about Phelps Avenue. This affects Clark Memorial Hospital; seven different schools; the Clark County Jail and County Government Building; Jeffersonville City Hall; the Falls of the Ohio State Park; the Census Bureau; two fire stations (Clarksville Station 1 and Jeffersonville station 1), and my house. it would also affect about a mile or two of the Ohio River. Forth Technologies on Bergman Street. An oleum leak there, worst-case, will affect Spring Street in Jeffersonville, north to the hospital; Court Avenue to roughly Graham Street; Market Street to the Steamboat Museum; I-65 north to 10th Street; and in Clarksville, everything south of Stansifer Avenue and east of the Interpretive Center. Zeon Chemicals on Bells Lane. The above-referenced butadiene leak took place here. A worst-case anhydrous ammonia leak here would affect a section of State Road 111 in Floyd County. CITGO Petroleum on Campground Road. A worst-case chloroform leak will affect the Horseshoe Casino and areas of rural Floyd County. Millard Refrigerated Services on Winstead Drive. A worst-case anhydrous ammonia leak here will also tag Horseshoe, and will affect rural parts of Harrison County, including around the Elizabeth area. Mill Creek Station on Dixie Highway. A worst-case anhydrous ammonia leak here will catch southern sections of Elizabeth, and will come close to South Central Jr./Sr. High School. Now come the two big ones: Dupont Louisville Works on Campground Road. A worst-case hydrogen fluoride leak here would affect all of Clarksville, Jeffersonville, New Albany, Utica, Floyds Knobs, Georgetown, and Elizabeth; most of Sellersburg and Corydon; and a section of Borden. Lubrizol Advanced Materials on Bells Lane. A chlorine leak here, worst-case, won't quite reach Corydon, and also won't quite reach Amazon's Jeffersonville fulfillment center, but will otherwise affect the same area as the hydrogen fluoride leak at Dupont. Surely, Clark County Emergency Management is aware of these. . .right? Surely, there is coordination between MetroSafe and Clark EMA, Central Alarm, Floyd and Harrison County dispatch and EMA, so that the Southern Indiana public can be made aware if something happens. . .right? If one of these worst-case scenarios should, God forbid, occur, we on the Sunny Side will be safe. . .right? I worked security at a chemical plant, so I am well aware that the chances of even a "minor" leak are relatively small, but that doesn't mean that emergency management and city/county/state leadership shouldn't be proactive in helping us out. What is the status on the HAZMAT unit that Clarksville Fire Department mentioned a while back? Is Jeffersonville on board? is there coordination with Louisville? More to follow on this, too. WELCOME HOME!: Taty'ana Hughes is home! After spending weeks at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis receiving treatment for serious burns sustained in a fire that killed her siblings, she finally came home last night, and was given a parade in New Albany today. A BRAVO ZULU to the firefighter that rescued her, Sergeant Bob Hannon of the New Albany Fire Department. I stand with the community in welcoming Taty'ana home, supporting her during her continued recovery, and in honoring Sgt. Hannon's bravery and the memory of Taty'ana's siblings. I suspect her star is going to shine quite brightly for quite a long time! Well, folks, that's it for this episode! I'll follow-up on the above two stories here soon. Until then, to quote Edward R. Murrow, good night and good luck! |
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July 2015
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