"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish." John F Kennedy, May 25, 1961

""By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon. And it will be American." Newt Gingrich, January 25, 2012

Why, exactly is the first quote considered inspiring and visionary and the second considered insane?

When JFK said we should go to the moon, 2 people had been in space, ever. We didn't know if it was possible to actually survive in space for any extended period of time. The technology didn't exist to accomplish the goal. So far, our space program consisted of strapping a guy to the front end of an ICBM and hoping when he came back down he'd land near one of the boats waiting for him.

Now, we've had people going into space for more than 50 years. We've been to the moon. The International Space Station has been crewed constantly for more than 10 years. Yet, somehow, people think that the idea of a permanent lunar colony is more insane now than getting to the moon was 50 years ago. Most of us carry more computing power in our pockets for playing games than they needed for those first moon missions. What the hell is wrong with people? Has the idea of doing amazing things become a joke to us? Are we so jaded that just because we don't like someone's politics we have to discount and ridicule every idea they have?

Is Gingrich crazy? Probably. He thinks cheating on his wives somehow translates to making him more qualified to lead the country than other people, but a moon colony should not be considered a bigger sign of crazy than that.

Just a thought: Obama showed weakness in this decision. The State Department said they needed six months to properly analyse the information regarding the Keystone SL Pipeline. When Congress passed a law requiring that the Executive Branch make a decision in sixty days, I feel that the proper response was not to wait the 60 days and then reject the pipeline. The best response from Obama would have been, the day the law was passed, to say "We said we needed time to do this right, we've been denied that time, so we're not going to waste time and taxpayer dollars on something that can't be done right. The answer is no. Now, those of you who voted on this stupid deadline, you go tell your constituents why you killed this project." If congress is going to act like children, treat them that way. When my son demands something "NOW!" it instantly goes from "we'll see" to "no". It's an election year. If you're president, with a hostile congress, you know they're going to try to draw you into games to make you look bad. Your only position of strength is to refuse to play.

It's rainy and cool as I leave for work this morning. The sun isn't up yet, and neither are Dean and Nicole. I've got a bus and train to catch so I can babysit a sound board out in the north burbs. I 34 and still not sure what I want to be when I grow up. Lately, I've been thinking about how my life would be different if I would have had better advice in high school about career options. But there is one thing that I'm sure of. Just one.
Nine years ago today, I married a woman who makes me complete. When we said "for better our for worse", we had no idea how bad worse could get. Yet we made it through. And even now, though the stresses are smaller, they are still constant. But we still manage to make each other laugh. There are little things she does that I know are just for me, and no matter how hard things get, I never wonder if I made the right choice. I've questioned almost everything else in my life, but not her.
I know I haven't been the ideal husband all the time, and yet she has taken my failings and foibles in stride and kept me on the right side of sanity more than once. She has half of my heart, and sometimes I've needed her to hold the whole thing to keep it safe when I couldn't.
Thank you, my love. I wouldn't be who I an without you. And who I am is someone I'm happy with only in the context of you. You have been my friend for twenty years and my wife for nine. You're made those years an amazing adventure and I can only hope we're still warming up for even more to come.
I love you.

10 years ago I was still at home when the second plane hit. I went to work not knowing what was going on. The train was a quiet as I've ever seen it. Nicole worked in a federal building, and she told me that the security detail there was going into full combat gear when she left. Details filtered in and they closed the store early. The entire city was quiet. There's no way to describe the feel of city of 2 million people who are quiet at the same time. On that day, a few men showed the world the power of hate. But thousands showed that love is stronger. Firemen, police officers, soldiers, marines, and ordinary citizens made the choice to walk into death and destruction for the sake of helping strangers. For a few days we saw that, fundamentally, people are good. As we remember the morning of September 11, 2001, let us also remember what happened in the hours and days afterwards. We saw the worst that men can do that day, but we also saw the best. That is what we must remember and memorialize.

As Mother's Day winds to a close, I'm sitting here finishing my beer and listening to TBWITWW read Dean his bedtime stories. We spent yesterday at Union Station, looking at trains and seeing some interesting displays. Today we went to the Zoo and then out to dinner. I'm a lucky, lucky man.

Mother's Day is complicated. I know for other people it's even more complicated. Things are a bit less complicated with Dean than they were for the 4 years when Nicole was a mother, but Aiden wasn't with us. There were reminders everywhere, and as much as the celebration of his life was important to us, it could make for awkward moments. Now there's more sweet than bitter.

My relationship with my own mother is also complicated. I know, so is everyone's. There were times when we were very close friends; times when we weren't on speaking terms, and times where we just plain didn't understand each other. Now, as a parent, I understand a little more how hard it is to make choices constantly and hope that they're the right ones and don't screw up your kid too much, and none of us bats 1000.

So, I've got a wife who is a fantastic mother. A mother who I love, and who loves me, and I'm able to see on a regular basis. I've got a mother-in-law who, at worst, tries too hard sometimes (a fantastic "worst" in my book). I've got a step-mother who is fun and who is truly family in every sense too. Both of my grandmothers are still living, and though I don't see them as often as I'd like, I still have them. Most people aren't nearly so lucky.

So thank you to Nicole, Paula, Rhonda, Yvonne, Grandma Evans, Grandma Rickert, Grandma Betty for being the fantastic mothers in my life. And thank you to everyone else who is a mother, biological or not. The women who kiss owies, wipe noses, bandage scrapes, praise homework, wipe away tears and love a child of any age. You are mothers and deserve every ounce of respect and love we can give you.

I'll start with clear statements. I do not support capital punishment. I do not believe that there should be joy in the death of any human. I don't believe for a second that this marks an end to anything beyond a few more lives.

That said, I believe that there are animals that look like humans, and that the world is better off without them in it. They are never groups, although groups of weak and frightened humans form around them, just as groups of humans form around any source of power, real or promised. But they are individuals, so reprehensible, that there is no hope that they will reform, or even learn to feel remorse. Like a cancer, the planet is better off without them.

Almost 10 years ago, as I was getting ready for work, I turned on the TV to news of the most aggressive act of terrorism against this country. My then-girlfriend-now-wife worked in a federal facility, and I worked in a theater in a dollstore in the shopping district of the 3rd largest city in the US. At that time we knew nothing about the motives, the depth, or the breadth of what was happening, and we were frightened. As a nation, we felt a corporate fear, that like fear in any animal triggered the fight-or-flight reflex in us as individuals and as a collective. Now, 10 years later, looking back, it seems to me that the individual reaction is mostly gone, but in many ways, we are still trying to flee and to fight against the unknown enemy that struck that day.

By unknown, I mean that the motivations of those who would kill to make their points known, are unknowable to most of us. We cannot put ourselves in those shoes and walk the proverbial mile. We can never know what anger and hatred makes an idea worth tens of thousands of lives to someone. We know who attacked us, and, as of yesterday, the self-proclaimed leader (in any other religion, he likely would've called himself a prophet) of those people is dead. He chose to make war on a superpower and he lost. But there should be no joy in that death. A man with a family, with children, is dead. He did terrible things in his life and he will do them no more. For that we can be thankful, but not joyous. For hatred is a Hydra, and cutting of a single head does not kill the beast. As long as people can take joy in any person's death, new heads will continue to grow.

So, please, when you think about what happened yesterday, think of the people you love and ask if it serves them in any way to be glad at a death. Think of the men and women who have taken up arms to defend and protect this country, at the cost of the lives of their friends or even themselves. Remember, that is what death is. Do not honor Bin Laden by making his death bigger than the deaths of those brave people, people who sacrificed their own lives rather than the lives of others. Celebrate life and the fact that despite people like Bin Laden, most of us are fortunate to go home to the people we love. For most of us the person down the street who worships at a different church or prays in a different language is simply a neighbor rather than an enemy. That is what peace is made of. Not everyone is so lucky.

So, I now work in a public school. I have many friends and friends-of-friends who are teachers, and a lot of smart and opinionated friends too. There's even some overlap between those categories. Right now the compensation of teachers is a point that's getting a lot of attention, so that makes me wonder how we can fix this system. I think most everyone, regardless of stance, agrees that the system is broken.

Here are some of the problems I see. (Keep in mind, this is strictly about teachers, not about the rest of the system... yet).
Tenure allows bad teachers to keep their jobs, doesn't provide a much in the way of encouragement for good teachers to get better, and discourages new teachers from trying to push boundaries. However, it does help protect teachers who have tenure from being punished when they do innovate or when they stand up to administration when trying to do what's best for students.

There isn't a good way to evaluate teachers (that I can think of) fairly to determine which teachers are the actual good teachers. Test scores as a basis encourages teaching to the test. Memorization isn't learning. The progress a student makes, or doesn't make can't be attributed to a single teacher, or even all of a student's teachers. Parents play a huge role (they should play the biggest role). There's also social factors, environmental factors, and personal factors. Peer evaluation, is questionable when the teachers are all competing for the same, limited funding. And you can't go by student evaluation. Teenagers aren't likely to evaluate based on objective standards.

So the question is: How do we evaluate teachers fairly and determine which teachers are doing good work, and then how do we retain and encourage those teachers, while weeding out the bad ones? I really want feedback on this.