Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin says Americans have grown “soft,” complaining about schools that were closing due to extreme cold caused by the polar vortex.
Why, when he was a boy, he wore shorts and a T-shirt when the temperature dropped below freezing! The colder it got, the less clothing he wore.
Folks today are wimps! They expect salaries! Pensions! Healthcare! They are all soft! Socialists, maybe. Wimps!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We got a tough guy here!
It’s Kentucky. Or at least, that Kentuckian. What do you expect?
He’s NOT a Kentuckian! He’s a carpet bagger from the NE (no offense to the friendly people of the NE). He’s an embarrassment to the state. In fact, he’s been voted the 4th least liked governor in the nation.
He’s no damn good!
Based on the weather report I’m seeing, Louisville is a balmy 11 degrees with 12 mph winds. Chicago, on the other hand, is MINUS 11 degrees (today’s high) with 24 mph winds (with about a foot of residual snow on the ground). Governor Matt Bevin is welcome to come and shovel my snow for me if he thinks there’s no danger in being outside.
Louisville, incidentally, is toward the northern part of Kentucky. Further south around Bowling Green it gets all the way up to 18 degrees.
Oh, and it’s not just schools that are closed. Nearly every private business is closed too. In fact, most private companies made the decision to close before the schools made their decisions. If government services such as schools are wimps, I guess the capitalists are bigger wimps.
Chicago: all airlines and train service suspended,along with mail service. Wimps!
One more BTW before I shut up for a bit. Libraries (and certain other governmental buildings) are open today. They serve as warming centers. Damn wimpy librarians!
Dienne, never pipe down. Even when I disagree, I appreciate your comments.
Dienne is amazing!!!
I just saw this on my Google news feed. I mean, I knew Governor Bevins is a moron, but this is a new low even for him.
https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/where-families-with-children-use-housing-vouchers Jan Resseger https://janresseger.wordpress.com/ “That all citizens will be given an equal start through a sound education is one of the most basic, promised rights of our democracy. Our chronic refusal as a nation to guarantee that right for all children…. is rooted in a kind of moral blindness, or at least a failure of moral imagination…. It is a failure which threatens our future as a nation of citizens called to a common purpose… tied to one another by a common bond.” —Senator Paul Wellstone, March 31, 2000
So if a school bus slides off the road and injures or kills some pupils, I hope Bevin is sued into the stone age. What a total fool.
It’s also about child safety at the bus stop. Many children have illnesses that worsen from extreme cold weather because cold air is an irritant to airways -asthma-coughs-bronchitis-eczema etc.
In addition they can be exposed to frostbite -hypothermia. I guess only wimps have common sense.
I think it is safe to say that all of us wimps are going to inherit the Earth and evict people like Kentucky’s governor. When we evict them, I suggest offering them a choice: Venus, the Moon, or Mars. If there are not enough rockets, we could use a giant catapult to shoot them into orbit.
After all, the Bible supports the wimps, who are also meek, will inherit the Earth from the trolls and Trumpists that are not wimps or meek.
Matthew 5:5 is the fifth verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It is the third verse of the Sermon on the Mount, and also third of what are known as the Beatitudes.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
The World English Bible translates the passage as:
I challenge Matt Bevin to put his bare body where his mouth flaps, and take a trip to Antarctica or the Arctic in the middle of the winter and run naked for a mile through a north or south pole blizzard to prove he isn’t a wimp.
If he ignores this challenge, then I call him out. “Governor Bevin,” I say, “you are a lying, loud-mouthed coward that is all roar and no bite.”
Nothing like absurd remarks to put most here on a roll. I defer to others on this.I sugest the Governor row across the Ohio River today to show he is not a whip.
Not row, just swim in his skivvies.
Hey, yeah–he should’ve participated in the Polar Bear Plunge in Chicago this weekend, as many “wimpy” Chicagoans did (it’s for charity)–in their skivvies (pretty much).
Lake Michigan in winter does NOT equal hot springs, Guv.
The provost at Western Kentucky University, a PUBLIC school, should explain why WKU professors are identified as “policy scholars” at Bluegrass Institute. The provost’s decision to allow the school’s name to be attached to the Institute shows a lack of regard for the bi-partisan citizens who built and fund the university. The provost’s position on the issue brings into question the professional integrity of faculty for objective analysis. Sourcewatch describes exactly what Bluegrass Institute is.
Many Americans today are wimps because they were born by C section
An argument for natural birth
The rigor of the birth
Is good, for what it’s worth
It gives the newborn grit
And helps them quite a bit
The section of the C
Is bad, it’s plain to see
Cuz birthing is a cinch
And newborn is a wimp
And I’d be willing to bet good money that there is direct correlation between how long it took a child to get out of the womb and lifetime earnings.
There s a (fake*) Nobel in economics for the person who does the study.
Raj Chetty should get right on it. It’s right up his (blind) alley.
*
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-economics-nobel-isnt-really-a-nobel/
Well, I invite y’all to come up here, Guv. Bevin. Sure you’d have fun slippin’ & slidin’ on the icy sidewalks & walking waist-deep in piled-up snow.
Just an opinion- Bevan’s talk seems manic. I hope the kids in his home have someone stable who nurtures.
Bevan forgot to take his anti-psychotic drugs the day he said this.
The Polar Vortex Blues
The Polar Vortex Blues
Is all I gots ta use
A really lame excuse
For closing public schools
A wimp is what I be
Its really plain to see
When temp is minus 3
It brings me to my knee
If the Gov wore shorts and a t-shirt to school in Minnesota this morning he’d have frostbite in under 5 minutes. My thermometer says -29 degrees and the wind chill is worse. That school bus had better not be delayed by snow and ice!
Dear Ms. Ravitch, Greetings from St. Louis!
Are you familiar with the Springfield Empowerment Zone and/or Bellwether Education Partners?
Here’s the background to my questions: I am a teacher in the city’s public schools. Our superintendent recently presented preliminary plans to the special appointed board (the one selected by mayor and governor, not elected by citizens). Apparently, officials from our district have been to visit the Springfield Empowerment Zone in Massachusetts, and now they’ve chosen a non-profit organization, Bellwether Education Partners, to start “teacher led” programs in two of our district’s struggling schools. While this sounds intriguing, I smell a rat, as the privatization forces in this town are mighty.
Any information or insights that you have would be most appreciated. Thanks !
Bellwetheris an organization devoted to privatization, charters, high stakes testing. They are not educators. They are lobbyists for privatization.
The founder of Bellwether also was a founder of TFA, Pahara, and New Schools Venture Fund (all Gates financed). In her interview (Kim Smith) in Philanthropy Roundtable, Smith said the goal of charters is “…brands on a large scale”.
Bill Gates and Z-berg are investors in the largest for-profit seller of schools-in-a-box.
Wow, they’re really in a panic & hitting from all sides, throughout the U.S. Walton PAC in Chicago (& probably the Kochs, too). Bellwetheris
(Gates & Z-berg–?) in St. Louis. The all-charter New Orleans.
The terrible charters throughout Nevada.
Buying candidates & legislators wherever they can.
Ca$$$h first!
I’d like to see a graphic of the Gates – Arnold links, similar to those created to expose the Koch’s. Gates and Arnold both sponsored the Sept., BiPartisan Policy Center’s panel about the changing landscape for higher ed. The only university listed as a panel member was the former Kaplan, now Purdue Global. The Purdue faculty are still fighting against Global’s threat to Purdue’s reputation.
Gates and Arnold are funding the Urban Institute which used to be known as a liberal think tank. Arnold funded the Institute’s pension papers so we know what they will claim.
Here’s a start.
AP analysis shows how Bill Gates influences education policy
Critics call it meddling by a foundation with vast wealth and resources. The Gates Foundation says it’s simply helping states navigate a “tectonic” shift in responsibility for education — from the federal government to more local control. …
“Some Common Core and Gates critics said they weren’t aware of the foundation’s interest in the education law or the millions of dollars it has continued to pour into supporting the standards. “They’re doing it in a quiet way because they don’t want the general public to know they’re still meddling in education policy,” said Carol Burris of the Network for Public Education.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/bill-gates-gives-44m-to-influence-states-education-plans/
The news today reported about Kentucky schools that were forced to call parents to pick up the students after school. The buses wouldn’t start.
Gov. Bevin should report for duty to start the buses wearing his shorts.
No, the governor should report to duty and let each child cling to his back while he runs them home and then returns to carry the next child home. And if his heart bursts, the state will be the winner and then he will be the wimp he really is.
Thanks, Lloyd, for an image that made me laugh through this reeaallly
cold spell in ILL-Annoy!
Me, too.