Supper’s done!
NYC school chooses “Three Little Pigs” to illustrate a morality tale to 11th graders.
The city DOE said the use of “The Three Little Pigs” at Landmark was a five-minute “Do Now” activity at the start of class to get the juniors settled down and ready to work.
It was also intended to help the kids consider whether telling the tale from the wolf’s point of view would change the moral of the story, officials said.
Leaving aside the question whether 17-year-old students should be stuck at 6-year-old’s reading level – that issue was resolved long ago when the NEA took over our schools, what about the school’s defense that the object of the lesson was to see the conflict from the wolf’s point of view? The wolf sees something it wants: pigs, and decides he’s entitled to take it by force. The two idle, lazy pigs race to Big Brother’s house, where they are saved by his foresight and wisdom, and poor Mr. Wolf goes hungry, even though it’s not his fault. In our inner city slums and in the hearts of liberals (see, e.g., illegal immigration, reaction thereto), this makes the wolf a sympathetic character, as well as reinforcing the idea that there’s a wise, powerful source of protection available to even the most stupid and lazy. In that sense yes, it’s a modern morality play.
In the original version, as read to me before Disney and modern educators went to work on it, the two idiot pigs who built their homes from straw and sticks, respectively, pay for their sins with their lives. Only the smart, industrious one who built with brick survives and in fact, tricks the wolf into coming down the chimney and falling into a cauldron of boiling water, whereupon he provides dinner, as well as entertainment.
As The Three Little Pigs is taught these days, there is no punishment for the lazy, or even for aggressive predators – wolfie now escapes with scalded buttocks and nothing worse. The original lesson has been perverted to fit the needs of modern educators and our new society. That’s too bad.
For What It's Worth 
You . . . Are banned from the school grounds.
In honor of his 103red birthday, National Review posted Milton Friedman’s greatest hits.
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2015/08/01/in-honor-of-his-103rd-birthday-here-are-the-20-best-quotes-from-the-late-great-milton-friedman-n2033298/page/full
You’ll like this one: “It is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. And you cannot have both. If you have a welfare state, if you have a state in which every resident is promised a certain minimal level of income, or a minimum level of subsistence, regardless of whether he works or not, produces it or not. Then it really is an impossible thing.”
And welcome back.
MILTON!! I once had the honor of meeting him. I was so nervous I spilled my wine down the front of his shirt. I leaned down to shake his hand and he was a smaller guy and the wine leaned down with me. SO embarrassing, but he was a real gentleman. Balzac, that quote is one of his best. Thank you for posting.
And welcome back.
Milton Friedman, the guy who invented the payroll deduction tax. Because if you take it all at once the people will revolt, but take a little each week and . . .
Friedman admitted many years later that that was his biggest mistake, assuming as a naive young government economist, that the tax would end when WWII did. Oops! Still, if he hadn’t figured out how to do it, someone else – John Gailbrath, probably – would have.
Thanks Chris, really interesting. Once a tax (or benefit) always a tax (or benefit).
Once they get their foot in the door it ain’t commin’ out. Jammed in deeper perhaps but . . .
Hey CF, ready to fill that $32 million get shortfall? That ought to be good for business.
Sorry, I forgot to say, Toonces, you little vixen, but then that’s Walt’s line.
HA HA AJ. I am not sure Sir Milt thought I was a vixen. A klutz maybe! I got so star struck! I majored in Econ! PS: The payroll tax may have been a mistake but he was otherwise awesome.
This is the kind of stuff that should get everybody huffin and puffin. It’s that damned Hegelian dialectic, consensus crap all over again. Let’s all think Common Core, hold hands and sing “We Are the World” one more time.
And what happened to all that Haiti money? Apparently it took $500 million to build just six houses (google it).
Connecticut On Its Latest Cash Grab: It’s Not Greed When We Do It
A New Death Tax in Connecticut
These ideas ran through my head when I read about the new probate court “fees” approved by the Connecticut legislature this month, reinforcing its status as being among the worst states in which to die. Whereas the maximum fee for settling estates there was $12,500, it can now go as high as $100,000, and in some cases, well over $1 million. These “fees” are in addition to estate taxes that range between 7.2 to 12 percent on estates greater than $2 million.
The “fees” were justified on an expected budget shortfall of $32 million that the legislature wanted to fill, but …
https://mises.org/library/connecticut-its-latest-cash-grab-it%E2%80%99s-not-greed-when-we-do-it
Is it time to abandon ship yet? Because I think your Ship of State is going down.
How many actually stay till death anyways?
Anyone with an estate over 2 million has probably left for more reasonable pastures long before flatline.
Greenwich money goes a long way in the carolina’s.
You get double the house at 1/4 of the price.
And when it snows, it doesn’t stick.
Duderino Man –
WELCOME BACK!! You son of a BITCH!! It is very nice to hear from you. No matter how droll your writings are. I missed you. Not in a homo way, you homo. No disrespect meant.
Is all ok? How is John? Is Sarah fanaticizing that she and I will be married some day? I AM! RELAX DUDE!! I am just busting your balls.
But me and you stuffing turkey legs down our disgusting little gullets would be a very good time. VERY GLAD YOU ARE BACK, AND BE WELL!!
I will admit. I posted on some other blogs while you were gone. I TRIED NOT TO!! And I was misunderstood. They had no sense of humor. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
But EOSr was a sweetheart. She put up with all my foibles. Which we know are many. I ruv her. Rong time. She was truly gracious, and I thank her for that, and I will never forget it. She has elegance. Her readers? NO COMMENT!! I posted some great stuff on that blog! I AM STILL LAUGHING!!
What did I get? SILENCE!! And hate. Liberals are retards.
But I would still like to talk to Carolyn, and work things out.
Brunch tomorrow to catch up?
And really glad you are back, and hope all is well.
You loser.
Your Pal,
Walt
On the subject of aggressively fending for yourself and not relying on government to provide for your safety in an emergency, let’s support the Navy officer in Chattanooga who apparently used his own weapon to defend himself and those under his command from the terrorist who killed five members of the military. Sign the petition on the White House website seeking that the commander be honored for his heroism. Links to the petition and story are below:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/honor-our-service-members-who-used-their-personal-firearms-fight-back-against-terrorist-attacker-chattanooga
Background story (Update: Navy apparently will not file charges against LCDR White)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/allen-west-navy-to-prosecute-chattanooga-hero/
Cobblers! Public schools in the US are shambolic…a tad focused on race so the ´blacks´don´t get barmy and use the race card…and nobody can say a thing or two. I take Byram for example or Cos Cob I might add. Are they retards? or I am so blatant about it I believe…And Flushing makes me want to go to the loo
I often read your commentaries on the changing landscape of American social mores and chuckle. Not this time. While there is no crime in re-writing a fictional story, it angers me to see a perfectly valid tale, one whose original format is more suitable to children than many of today’s adult-themed children’s music, clothes and fictional characters. I grew up in the 1980s and was taught the original fable (or at least, the telling of it that you cite from your own childhood). It saddens me that in just a few decades a tale so innocent – devoid of any misogynism, racism, etc., subtle or otherwise,and thus constituting for some a legitimate concern – would need to be clothed in, dare I say it, wolf’s clothes.
We have a new writer.
Bunny is that you?
Nope. Needs at least
a) Mulsanne horsepower rating and/or
b) Hermés couture reference
to be legit.
Don’t forget the mimosas!