I'm sorry for bringing people over from Africa and enslaving them.... NOT!!

Hi Folks,

So I came across a CNN article that talks about the University of Virginia celebrating Thomas Jefferson's birthday by apologizing for the school's use of slave labor between 1819 and 1865. You can read about it HERE.

I'm sick and tired of people apologizing for things they did not do, to people who were not wronged.... "What do you mean Tom?" "Slavery is horrible, and it's an outrage the university was built on the back of slave labor, isn't it?"

That's true, slavery is wrong. I don't condone it, but here's the problem folks. Slavery in the USA happened 150-200 years ago. That means that everyone who was a slave during that time has died. It also means that everyone who owned slaves in the USA has also died.

Heck, I was born in 1978, I have no part in this history. No slave picked my cotton or called me "massa" and there's no way I'm going to apologize for "enslaving" someones ancestors because I didn't do it. Besides, who would I apologize to even if I felt like it? The 20 year old black guy selling weed on the bus home? The guy in my mailroom who is from Africa, but immigrated here 5 years ago? Maybe Oprah...?

My point is that no one on the U of V's board had anything to do with the decision to employ slave labor in the making of the school and there's no one left to apologize to. IT'S ALL OVER FOLKS! The time to apologise would have been back in the 1800's when former slaves would have been around to receive such an apology.

If folks want to be boneheaded about it, why stop there? Trace the history of everyone at the school. Any Russians out there? Might want to apologise that one of your Alumni's ancestors might have been responsible for sending millions to their deaths in in the Russian gulags. Any alumni of Roman decent? Romans were a HUGE slave society, why aren't you apologizing for that atrocity.

Remembering history and learning from those mistakes is a very good thing... Making stupid apologies for something that isn't your fault is NOT TOMLAND APPROVED

My Cat Died Yesterday

Normally I use the blog to post things relevant to larger social issues. But today I'd like to post a little about my cat Wendell. I bought Wendel as a Christmas present for my (at the time) girlfriend (now) wife 10 years ago. Turns out Wendell stuck around thru the rest of our college years, our marriage, our first house and a ton of other life changing events over the last decade.

Although Wendell didn't like to be held at all (he was a big fan of his own personal bubble) he loved get scratched around the ears and under the chin. He wouldn't hesitate to jump on the table and get a little taste of your dinner and whenever you got home would be waiting on the stairs to give you a few welcome meows before going to lay down on the couch. He also loved to sit over my wife's head at night. We had pillow especially for him that he used.

Over the weekend we found that Wendell seemed to develop a paralysis of sorts. He couldn't walk or stand and really only seemed to have full use of one of his four paws. Turns out he had a serious problem with his spine and according to the vet at best a 25% chance of recovery from this episode with the problem progressively getting worse as the months went on. With this prognosis we chose to put him down; which lets face it folks is a nice way of saying we authorized the vet to kill our pet.

What for me was especially hard is the fact that mentally Wendell seemed alert and happy (although frustrated at not being able to move). Even though medically speaking it was clearly more humane to put him down when thinking of his quality of life, the fact that his mind was alert made it that much harder.

I miss our cat very, very much. The house feels incredibly empty without him. Although I'm not sure what the afterlife looks like (or if it looks like anything) I really hope that he's up there somewhere laying around and eating big bowlfuls of favorite foods, including some nice chunks of Teriyaki chicken.

My can dying yesterday... so not Tomland approved that even my most thumbsdown icon doesn't come close to being unapproved enough.

Cowboys and Indians? More like Cowboys and Jail

Alright folks, many of you may remember playing with toy guns as kids shooting away at your friends or imaginary villains with imaginary bullets.

Ah, violence it's part of human nature. Eat or be eaten, kill or die. Sure, we like to think of modern time as more civilized, and maybe it is. But there are sill plenty of violence out there, rape, theft, and killing. Don't forget war. Lots of wars out there and our country actively recruits young men and teaches them to kill other people. It's the reality of life as we know it.

Along those lines, I ran across this article in the paper today. Apparently a mother went into her sons classroom with a toy gun and scared a few of the kids (maybe) by shooting off the toy gun in the classroom. I can't say for sure but the gun didn't seem to be one with the gunpowder caps in it, so no huge noise just the clicking sound of a toy gun. I also like to take a second to point out that for years now all toy guns must have a large orange cap at the barrel so folks know it's a toy.

An odd laps in judgment from a mother to be sure, and the school as banned this person from school grounds for a year. And the banishment seems like a fitting punishment. However that isn't the end of the story. Apparently the police were called now the mother is being charged with assault and faces up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.

JESUS CHRIST folks; a year in prison and an assault record!?! Let's get real, no children were harmed in the making of this story and no real weapon was brought into school. I remember my preschool used to have a chest full of nice looking 6-shooters for kids to play with. 20 years down the line society has turned around 180 degrees and now threatens to jail a mother who has essentially done the same thing many children did as kids.


Being an idiot (whether it's the person committing the offense, or the people handing out the punishment).... Not Tomland Approved.

Holy Crap! 150,000 people died yesterday!!!!

But we only care about 33 of them.

As I'm sure you've all read, a student shot and killed 32 fellow classmates yesterday. If you haven't read about it you can do so here. At one point CNN mentioned it was the worst shooting in US history. Actually that's not correct, check out what happened in 1812

But that's irrelevant to this article. I agree the shooting was a horrible act and my condolences go out to the families of the victims.

However, this got me thinking... how many people die every day? I mean, there are billions of people in the world, there must be a lot of folks dying each day that I don't know about, or care about. Turns out there are.

According to the census bureau one person dies every 1.8 seconds, giving a daily global death rate of roughly 150,000 people a day. You can read a little about that here. Of course big media can't give time to that many people every day, but today I will... Folks please take a second to think about the fact that a whole lot of people died every day, probably a good 10 people while you were reading this article.... On the plus side, about 4.1 people are born every second giving a daily birth rate of over 340,000

Death, not very fun but an important part of life. Tomland has mixed feelings on this one, and had to create a new neutral icon for it.

2+2=5... duh!

Hello folks,

In today's news, the lawmakers in Washington state have voted to delay a requirement that students pass the math portion of Washington's WASL test in order to graduate from high school. You can read the article here

Now those of you outside Washington state may not be familiar with this test, basically folks in Washington wanted to establish some minimum standards required in order to graduate and they came up with the WASL test. Think of those "achievement tests" they used to give out in many schools (California achievement test where I grew up). You can read about the WASL and it's history here

Now I think the idea of forcing a student to have some minimum amount of knowledge before graduating is an excellent idea. I'm sure you can all remember the slackers in your school who barely showed up to school, didn't do any homework, didn't pay attention in class but managed to snag that diploma with a D+ average.... And after that they either:
a) Got pregnant and promptly applied for food stamps
b) Resigned themselves to working for "The Man" as a Subway sandwich artist (that's right, they're artists now)

Here's the problem though; the reason the lawmakers are suspending the math portion of the bill is because it turns out that in 2006 about 50% of students failed to pass all the sections of the WASL. Math and Science were the biggest problem areas (passing of the science section is currently not required)

There's one of two things going wrong here, neither make me very happy:
1) The test is actually WAY too difficult. Personally I doubt this, but for arguments sake let's say that's the case. Then re-write the test and be done with it.
2) The students are not learning enough. I'm pretty sure this is the real problem. Multiple studies confirm that America lags far behind other countries in terms of educational standards, especially in math and science.

People say that a High school diploma is pretty worthless these days, you really need a college degree; and they're right! How can a high school diploma mean anything when we're letting folks that can barely read and do simple math graduate?

If 50% of the kids fail to graduate they'll get a wake up call real quick. In this day an age nothing gets done unless there's an epidemic. Well half the kids failing their senior year would definitely draw attention. Curriculum's would be updated, kids would study more. And the value of a high school diploma would shoot up.

Coming up with standards and then going back on them because you're afraid of the consequences, NOT Tomland approved.

I no speaka English Senior

Hello folks,

It's been a while since I've posted anything since I've been out of town... working. I hate work, but that's not what today's post is about. No, today I came across an article about Newt Gingrich drawing some negative press about using the word "Ghetto" in an interview regarding the learning of American language. You can read the article here

-- bilingual education should be replaced with immersion in English "so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto."--

Damn straight. Unfortunately Newt is a politician so he had to backtrack a little in order not to loose votes. But I don't have to worry about that, so let me say what old Newt can't.

Folks, if you live in the USA you'd better learn English. It's simply idiotic to think that a whole county is going to change their ways for little old you. Why should Joe Taxpayer pay for multi language classes, special programs and reprint all my documents into your native language? Why should my children be required to learn a different language to communicate with you? You are the visitor in MY country, you need to communicate with me, not the other way around.

To take this a bit further, when it comes to ILLEGAL immigrants into the country, not only do I not care about you, I don't want you in my country, get the hell out! I don't want to spend millions on your medical care, your education, I don't want to see your national flag flying out of your window. If I did, I'd move to your country (where I'd do my best to learn your native language)

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against imigrants. America welcomes you, as long as you come in legally, obey the laws of the country and do your best to fit in, instead of forcing others to bend to your wishes.

Pretending you're Christopher Columbus and have just landed in the New World; announcing that you have claimed this land as your country... NOT tomland approved.