Diane Balog

[Kylene Beers @KyleneBeers]

It is that time of the year again.

Here is the repeat post.

Why I Hated Meredith's First Grade Teacher: An Open Letter to America’s Teachers

By Kylene Beers

When my first born headed off to first grade, twenty-one years ago, she held my hand as we walked down the hallway of Will Rogers Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District. We walked into Ms. Miner's room and Meredith's steps grew more hesitant. This wasn't the University of Houston Child Care Center, the place she had gone for years while I was a doctoral student at UH. This place looked different – bigger, more official. There were big-kid desks pushed together in clusters. And though there were centers, they were not the dress-up center or the cooking center or water play center of the Child Care Center.

The room was filled with children she did not yet know, with books she had not yet read, with a math center that had number charts, and with a big poster by the door labeled, "Our Classroom Rules" that was still blank. "I don't want to stay," she said. I didn't want her to, either. I wanted her still with me, only me. I didn't want to give up those early years of childhood just yet, years when her world mostly revolved around her parents and new baby brother and a silly dog with big ears and afternoons spent in our local library reading book after book after book or playing in our neighborhood park, sometimes just sitting on the grass, watching the ants march by. Mustering every ounce of courage I said, "Oh, you will love first grade. It was my favorite year in school. I loved my first grade teacher, Mrs. Allen, and I bet you are going to love Ms. Miner, too." Meredith looked doubtful and so very small. And then Ms. Miner, long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, saw us, came over, and bent down to Meredith's level. A first year teacher, Ms. Miner was full of energy and excitement. She loved books, wanted to be a great teacher, and had obviously spent weeks making her room look inviting to these 22 six-year-olds.

"Oh, you're Meredith! I recognized you from your picture! Come here and let me introduce you to some others. And let me show you all around the room. And, hey, you brought Corduroy as your favorite book and that's one of my favorite books, too!"

And then, somehow, without me even realizing, Meredith's small hand moved from mine to Ms. Miner's and she was gone. She was swallowed up by the sheer joy this other woman brought into her classroom, into learning, and into my child's life. "I guess I'll be going now," I said to Meredith who was busy putting school supplies away in her desk. "So, I'll be just around the corner at our house," I said blinking hard to keep away the tears." I think she nodded. Perhaps she even paused to wave. My feet couldn't move, and Ms. Miner gently helped me out of the classroom. "She's really shy," I said to Ms. Miner just as Meredith sped by holding a new friend's hand showing her "all these hooks where we can hang our backpacks."

Meredith was breathless with excitement at the end of that day – every day – and by the end of the first week, our family had a new member: Ms. Miner. Each afternoon and for long into the evening, I had to listen to "Ms. Miner said . . ." and "Ms. Miner thinks . . ." and "Ms. Miner showed us . . ." and when I slipped and said, "Oh damn" at dinner burned in the oven, I was reminded that "Mom, Ms. Miner would never say . . . ." Right, I smiled through gritted teeth.

For the entire year I watched my child fall in love with school, with learning, with figuring out, and most importantly, with her first grade teacher, Ms. Miner. Meredith, who had once hated ponytails, now only wanted to wear ponytails. And blue skirts, "just like Ms. Miner's." "And Mom, my name starts with an M and Ms. Miner starts with an M. Isn't that great!! We match!" Yes, Meredith, just great. Really great. Oh damn.

Though I had been a teacher for years before having Meredith, before sending her off to first grade, I had never truly understood the power of a teacher in a child's life. We give our most precious and priceless to you – dear teachers – each year, knowing you will teach them, but also hoping you will care for them, help them discover how very much they matter, watching over them, and being there when they have been hurt by the ones who won't let them sit at the "popular" table – and then you do just that and they fall in love with you. It shows up in different ways as they grow older. But it's still there, this deep affection and respect. And, certainly, it's harder to forge those bonds when there are 150 students instead of twenty-two, when the day is fragmented into forty-five minute classes, when education seems to be more about the test than the child. But I promise, underneath that bravado of the seventh grader or swagger of the tenth grader you will find that small first grader who wonders, "Will my teacher like me?" And when that child – that teen – knows that you believe he or she matters, then that student will do most anything for you.

To this day, Meredith remembers you, Ms. Miner, and to this day, I so hated how much she loved you that year. And, simultaneously, I am so grateful that she did.

And so, dear teachers, across this country during the next two weeks, most of you will be opening your classroom doors in a first-day welcoming for your students. As a teacher I am proud to stand beside you in all that you do. But as a parent, well, as a parent I stand in awe of all that you do. And to Ms. Miner, thank you.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

Thousands of homeless American veterans are sleeping on the freezing streets and waiting 6 to 9 months for basic medical appointments at backlogged VA hospitals.

At the exact same time, major sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago have spent billions in taxpayer dollars block-booking four-star hotels, providing free meals, laundry services, and prepaid debit cards to illegal migrants who just crossed the border.

American veterans who wore the uniform and put their lives on the line for this country are ignored, while foreign nationals who broke our immigration laws are given free luxury accommodations.

How can any American politician look a disabled veteran in the eye and justify spending billions on illegal immigrants while our own heroes are left homeless?

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

This. ⬇️

[Jeffrey A Tucker @jeffreytucker]

This is such an excellent point – never thought of it before – and consider that most of these students enter college without having experienced remunerative work. https://t.co/VoJSpH0I4h

[Natalie Winters @nataliegwinters]

EXC: Sharia financing is being adopted as official government policy across America.

I found dozens of examples of cities, states and federal regulators changing loan programs, tax rules, banking policy and economic-development plans to accommodate Islam.

Here’s the list 🧵

[Gregory K Bovino @GregoryKBovino]

Thank you Margarita Cielo Balbuena.

You have lived in the United States since 1989. That is 37 years. You still need a translator.

At a Democratic event you stood up and demanded a path to citizenship for anyone who has been here just 7 years.

Notice the arrogance. Notice the entitlement.

After nearly four decades she still cannot function in English. Yet she feels perfectly justified demanding the full rights of citizenship for herself and millions of others who have not assimilated either.

This is the system working exactly as designed.

We have imported so many people so quickly that assimilation is no longer required.

Critical mass creates ethnic silos where English and the host culture become optional.

You can live your entire life here without learning our language or our way of life and still demand the right to vote and rewrite the country.

That is how America becomes balkanized and unrecognizable.

Mass deportations are the only policy that restores the pressure to assimilate.

Everything else is just managed decline.

[Michele Tafoya @Michele_Tafoya]

Peggy Flanagan did not talk about fraud one time last night. Why? Because she does not care.

She does not care that billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen on her watch as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor.

She does not care that families did not receive the services they needed because Feeding Our Future fraudsters became rich.

All Peggy Flanagan cares about is getting promoted to the U.S. Senate.

[Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_]

Per DHS, this “North Carolina pastor” is an illegal alien from Liberia who has had a deportation order since 1991 and has prior convictions for drug possession, fraud, mail theft, false citizenship, multiple traffic offenses, and charges for harassing communication and simple assault.

[Archdio. of Boston @bostoncatholic]

"The passage and signing of a bill radically expanding abortion in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a grave offense against the sanctity and dignity of every person. I realize that those who work to uphold and promote that dignity may feel discouraged in this moment. I encourage us to continue to proclaim the beauty and the miracle of life. The Word of God commands us, “choose life that you may live" (Deut 30:19). May that truth give us strength and hope." - Archbishop Richard Henning

[Jennifer Sey @JenniferSey]

I was just on @CBSNews The Takeout with @MajorCBS. I was there to talk about the WNBA - what else.

I was introduced as the head of @xx_xyathletics, "an advocacy organization."

Correction 1: We are an athletic clothing brand. We are not a non-profit. We are a business. A brand. And brands influence the culture. Nike takes all sorts of positions. The difference between us and Nike is we mean what we say. We stand up for women when it is hard. When there is no upside in it for us. Nike takes their supposed stances as a marketing play ("woke capitalism"). And they go the opposite direction when the wind blows that way.

He then said our mission was to "keep trans out of women's sports."

Correction 2: No. Our mission is to stand up for female athletes, not just pretend to like Nike -- a brand that makes money off of "championing" female athletes while treating them with astonishing disregard. (See: Mary Cain, Alyson Felix for examples.)

We don't care if women who identify as trans (think they are men) play in women's sports. We don't care if women who declare a non-binary identity play in women's sports. Women like Nikki Hiltz. Or Layshia Clarendon. They are women. It's all good!

We don't want men in women's sports. Not "trans identified" men. Not DSD men. MEN. No men in women's sports.

80% of Americans agree with us.

This isn't culture war stuff. This is 80% of Americans being normal and 20% living in a misogynistic fantasy land where men can declare themselves women and take our privacy and opportunities away.

Thank you for having me but just needed to correct the record on my intro.

[Diane Balog @DCBalog]

@hicasamadim 23

[David Burge @iowahawkblog]

In short this is not a women's sports league. It's a joyless, angry, violent, race obsessed non-stop 2018 Oberlin struggle session filled with entitled lunatics unable to survive without someone else picking up the bill. They whine when they don't get attention, and whine 10x harder when they do. They whine hardest about the problematic "new fans" who quadrupled their pay, tripled their TV audiences, 10x-ed their franchise valuations, got them charter jets, and staved off their inevitable bankruptcy for 10 years or so.

I sincerely hope they achieve their dream of exorcising themselves of CC and all those dreaded "new fans," and return to their beloved Paradise Lost of half-empty 1000 seat high school gyms attended by girl fight fetishists with giveaway tickets printed on Subway Sandwich receipts.

[Clay Travis @ClayTravis]

Sports Illustrated’s headline is “Sophie Cunningham got a bitter taste of karma” by getting clotheslined. Sports media is broken. It’s way more left wing than political media.

[The Kobeissi Letter @KobeissiLetter]

This is absolutely incredible.

Corporate America is currently on pace for the biggest earnings beat EVER recorded.

S&P 500 companies are beating earnings per share estimates by an aggregate +29.2%.

To put this into perspective, the 5-year average stands at +7.0%, which is already historically high.

In other words, S&P 500 companies are now beating already high expectations by ~4.2 TIMES the 5-year average.

On top of this, the blended net margin for the S&P 500 is up to 16.9%, also an all time high.

Even if you removed Alphabet’s $98 billion gain from unrealized equity investments and Amazon’s $53 billion gain from Anthropic, S&P 500 earnings growth would STILL be +32.0% year-over-year.

We are in the midst of the largest investment boom in history.

[Texas 🇺🇸 @MustangMan_TX]

Jamele Hill is a racist B!!! 💯

That’s her constant drum beat! She is a despicable racist woman.

I stand with Sophie Cunningham what about you?

[Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_]

NEW: DHS confirms that a suspect arrested in Illinois for being found in possession of eight Molotov cocktails is a Jordanian illegal alien who was caught and released at the California border by the Biden administration in 2024. DHS says Hamed Mohammed Hamed Alsaidi was arrested by ICE after local police in Will County, IL arrested him, then released him and refused to honor ICE’s detainer request due to sanctuary policies & Illinois’ SAFE-T Act.

He was seen wandering aimlessly in traffic and gave officers a fake name. Once he was arrested, officers learned his real name and discovered the Molotov cocktails, which had gauze stuck in the tops of them to use as a wick.

Police say he also had a written map of the area, including a local train station, and the words “you see the mosque” written down.

Alsaidi is charged locally with felony unlawful possession of a weapon and misdemeanor obstructing identification and remains in ICE custody.

[Diane Balog @DCBalog]

@waitmaya 31

[Chava @ChavaL1018]

Jeff Foxworthy and Muslims Jeff Foxworthy writes....... Have you ever wondered why it's OK to make jokes about Catholics, Jews, Christians, the Pope, the Irish, the Italians, the Polish, the Hungarians, the Chinese, the French (including French Canadians), the elderly, bad golfers, men/women, blacks/whites, red necks, etc., but it's insensitive to make jokes about the Muslims?

Well, it's time to level the playing field and be politically incorrect, by including our friends, the Muslims, on this grandiose list. So Jeff Foxworthy did his part to include the Muslims on his list ...

1. If you grow and refine heroin for a living, but morally object to the use of liquor, you may be a Muslim.
2. If you own a $3,000 machine gun and a $5,000 rocket launcher, but can't afford shoes, you may be a Muslim.
3. If you have more wives than teeth, you may be a Muslim.
5. If you think vests come in two styles, bullet-proof and suicide, you may be a Muslim.
6. If you can't think of anyone that you haven't declared jihad against, you may be a Muslim.
7. If you consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing, you may be a Muslim.
8. If you were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses, other than setting off roadside bombs, you may be a Muslim.
9. If you have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four, then you, too, may be a Muslim.
10. If you find this offensive and do not forward it, you are part of the problem here in America … but if you delete this, you are most likely a Muslim. Eishhhhhh 😡😡😡😡

[Diane Balog @DCBalog]

@YESNetwork Tyler Wade??

[Martina Navratilova @Martina]

How is including males on women’s team inclusive for the female athlete who lost that spot to a male? The ignorance is astounding.