Deaf/HH Ragtime Pianist Plays a Piece

Wanna see me play the piano a novelty ragtime piece called Black and White Rag?

Go visit my Ragtime Piano! blog and watch my play on my piano..

Matt Hamill in UFC 102 on August 29, Portland, Oregon

Though more than a month away (52 days to go as of today) it wouldn't hurt to remind people of Matt Hamill's next fight on August 29 against Brandon "The Truth" Vera in the upcoming UFC 102 fight. Matt Hamill has steadily improved his game with an 8-2-0 record.

This will be a good time to go if you live in Oregon or Washington since the fight will take place at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon (see map). Ticket costs anywhere from $50 to $600 dollars. There is an 8 tickets limit meaning that one can buy eight tickets at the same seating area for friends and families to stay together.

I plan on going but looks like I may be getting the upper seats. It's a good to go since I live about 20 miles away from Portland and this will be a good opportunity to go and watch, and meet up with Matt Hamill. If you are interested in joining with me, let me know and perhaps get adjoining seats for this event. And a chance to meet with Matt Hamill.

Also, a heads up. Look to my Kokonut Pundit blog for more upcoming news about Matt Hamill. I have done several interviews for my Kokonut Pundit blog with Matt in the past discussing his UFC quest. So, keep an eye out on this one folks.

Voluntyranny at Gallaudet University?

This is pretty much a continuation from my recent blog, Gallaudet's Community Service Requirement - a forced, mandatory volunteer program?

There are certain aspects or components that I simply disagree when it comes to mandatory volunteer service. I see it simply as more detrimental than beneficial since it relies on education on emotions rather than an intellectual one.

For a start...
(1) It is not a volunteer service, so do not call it as one.
(2) Volunteering comes from the heart to serve and help where needed on his/her own time.
(3) It is an obvious social engineering attempt by using "peer pressure" as a way to get students or people to feel guilty and that they must somehow comply and be "one of us."
(4) School officials and educators have disagreed that by making "volunteering" mandatory do not make much sense or that it is seen as a backward step.
(5) There is no spirit of volunteering taking place at all but rather something that is heaped upon instead.
(6) This is about substiting reason with emotions with little intellectual value.

I'm not alone in this at all. John B. Egger, professor of economics at Towson University, recently wrote an article in Academic Questions that the “service learning” trend undermines a free society and subverts the university’s purpose of training the mind.

“By attempting to substitute emotions for reason, service-learning contravenes the purpose of liberal education while chipping away at students’ respect for the social order.”

In other words, this mandatory community service or mandatory voluneerism serves more of an indoctrination purposes than not.

As I said before, volunteering comes from the heart on his own initiative and time. Mandatory volunteer as a requirement does not come from the heart.

According to Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky, who commented on the subject while a senior at Princeton University,

“this darker side of student volunteerism … can undermine young people’s respect for and interest in genuine volunteerism. … In their zeal to recruit Samaritans, colleges have attracted a great number of Pharisees.” Worse, Ramos-Mrosovsky documents cases of bad faith and out-and-out fraud on the part of students to game the service system. Examples include plagiarism, creating original projects to demonstrate leadership rather than participating in existing ones understood to be more beneficial to the needy, and taking credit for service actually performed by parents.

It's all about ideologies at work here and Gallaudet University is one of the many colleges and universities who are pimping this social agenda to new students under the guise of a "feel good" course requirement called "mandatory volunteering." Egger also wrote concerning his view of "good and evil" that this mandatory voluneeter business

“...suppresses and denigrates the individual in favor of a group or ‘society’ and views self-interest as a vice.”

In other words, it's all about peer pressure. And that mandatory community service is actually critical of “individualistic attitudes.” Something that we, as individuals, ought to be ashamed of. How ironic. That alone goes against the very idea of diversity and autonomous thinking. Social engineers are more interested in advancing their idea by using emotions where"charity is moral, but self-interested behavior that respects others’ rights is something for which one must atone." That is about how one shouldn't display individual selfishness but instead be selfless of oneself for the sake of many. These ongoing social engineerings are being done right under our noses.

Hey, I'm not that dumb to see the differences. Call it "voluntyranny." Call it as another form of "soft hazing" by doing something not out of the goodness of your heart but something done in order to earn those brownie points just to graduate. Now, suppose I "volunteer my time" by playing the piano for the public for free, does that count as a "community service" on my part? After all, my service would be free and that it is a source of free entertainment helping people enjoy and relieve stress and tension at the same time.

Gallaudet's Community Service Requirement - a forced, mandatory volunteer program?

Community service? It can be done while as a volunteer or it can be used to punished those who violate the law where judges dole out community service requirements to offenders. Community service punishment is also seen as the ideal sentence for those who commit misdemeanor crimes must do 80 hours of community service.

Juvenile court Judge Christopher Estes sentenced Pleajhai Mervin, Kenngela Lockett and her brother Joshua to at-home probation and community service, but spared them any jail time. Ms. Mervin, then 15, and Ms. Lockett were charged with the misdemeanors while Joshua Lockett was charged with felony counts of threatening a public officer and making criminal threats. He also faced misdemeanor charges for disturbing the peace.

The youths must perform 80 hours of community service and undergo anger management classes, but according to Atty. Carl Douglas, their lawyer, they could be entangled in the legal system until they are 23-years-old. He doubts that will happen because the teens “are good children,” he told The Final Call.

Now, Gallaudet University has a "community service program requirement" for new freshmen where it requires them to do 80 hours of community service in order to graduate.

Ironically, in Gallaudet University's Community Service Program Requirement, it states one of the things on what the program is about,

Understand first-hand obligation to contribute to the solution of societal problems.

Isn't one of societal problems also includes the forcing of a mandatory volunteer requirement on new undergraduate students in order for them to graduate?

The word "volunteer" means to do things on your own initiative and on your own time without anyone telling you when and what you must do in order to graduate from college? Volunteering comes from the heart when the person is ready to do so out of self-consciousness or realization. The words "community service program requirement" is simply an euphemism for mandatory volunteering requirement. The phrase "mandatory volunteerism" is an oxymoron. You cannot force people to volunteer. Mandatory volunteerism is the heart of Gallaudet's program could be seen as a stumbling block for those who want to graduate.

In a 2008 commentary letter about a North Carolina Senate bill that will add a community service requirement for graduation for almost every college in the state:

In 1999 and 2004 there were similar attempts on community service requirements at the University of California. Former system provost H.R.C. Greenwood reminded us that the university’s academic senate stated that "existing research on collegiate community service suggests that a graduation requirement impedes, rather than promotes, the fostering of an ethic of public service."

Indeed. I see that it does impedes the spirit of volunteering rather than promotes it.

So those of you thinking about going to Gallaudet University for the first time, maybe it's time to broaden your options first before deciding. It's time to develop your critical thinking skills on these matters.

UPDATE: See my recent blog, a continuation of this subject.

Mt. St. Helens - when work becomes a pleasure.

Imagine getting paid to enjoy the beauty of nature and admire the resilency of the land in the aftermath when Mt. St. Helens blew her top on May 18, 1980. Here's a photo of me during my lunch break in front of Mt. St. Helens near the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Excuse the lousy photo since it was my low resolution cell phone camera that produced the not so good quality pictures stitched together. But I'll be visiting this site more often since my work is a few miles away and is a part of my project. What better place to work in 1,368,000 acres of forested watersheds that includes Mt. St. Helens with view of Mt. Ranier to the north, the pointy Mt. Adams to the east along with the mighty Columbia River bordering the south? No wonder I love working in the outdoors. Certainly beats working in New Mexico. Who knew that a Gallaudet alumnus would end up working in one of the best places to work outdoors in the United States.

One of these days I will hike up to the top rim of Mt. St. Helens and will take a bunch of good photos. Meanwhile, I need to get a better camera to bring next time.

All Deaf Are Not Created Equal

It's amazing. Really. Some people just have the inability to handle controversial subjects or commentaries (short of calling people names or slanderous innuendos) in discussion forums. I've never really participated much in AllDeaf until recently and decided to give it a serious whirl for the last few weeks. It was mostly in the area of politics or other sensitive issues. I knew going in that it is the Land of the Liberals (hint) and I was expected to get labeled fairly quickly ranging from getting called a bigot, racist, homophobic and even sexist. All laughable charges. I guess it goes with the territory when it comes to discussion forums of wide ranging opinions.

Then soon it really got amusing.

Some didn't know how to deal with my comments or how to respond to my questions, the one liners started to flow like fine wine (or would that be whine?) and the moderators started to wag their fingers and complaining how hard it was to "baby sit" participants of AD. It was almost the same kind of responses in other similar Deaf managed forums. All except for one, Deafreedom, a deaf managed forum. It is a shining example of what tolerance looks like when it comes to moderating forums and the people who comment there.

My nature is to challenge prevaling and popular thoughts on current issues. Not about mudslingings and ad homenim attacks or with subtle and slanderous suggestions implying something for the sake of appearing, um, "intellectual." I was hoping for honest and challenging debates. Instead of dealing with a Calvin like the character in the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes. So, who or what is Calvin? Well, Calvin is an impulsive, sometimes overly creative, imaginative, energetic, curious, intelligent, often selfish, rude, and a usually bad-tempered six-year-old (from the description in Wikipedia). Oooh, the irony of life.

I guess my expectation was a wee-bit too high knowing full well I'd be stepping into the Land of the Liberals mush. And if people wanted answers, I'd give it to them straight rather than dally around giving out non-answers, using the patented bob-and-weave responses, innuendos, and constant one liners all in the effort to appear to have a command of their intellectual faculties. Or come up with some psycho-babble nonsense with non-answers in the effort to appear like a certified psychologist. Or secretly have an ax to grind against me at a subconcious level over some challange I made 2 years ago when I requested that a deaf person to call me claiming he could use the phone without any problems. And the person was promptly cornered. That's when I learned that exaggerations and hyperboles is the name of the game. Sometimes.

Yet, I despise any form of intellectual dishonesty when it comes to discussions or debates. It's just like driving on the highway, you have your passive-aggressive driver who purposely drive slow for the express purpose to "pay back" and annoy drivers behind them and claim innocence saying that the driving was within the speed limit. But we know better, don't we? Or maybe more accurately it's like being a victim in a drive by shooting tossing out vicious one liners for no apparent rhyme or reason. Although some cried "Uncle!" and ran to the moderators because somebody got offended over something so minor. So, "Run to Mommy" must be the answer nowadays.

Yet, most participants are able to suck it up and go with the flow. And that's good. But apparently there were a few people who simply do not have the capacity to handle strongly opinionated comments and must resort to the lowly common denominator of one liner attacks. But for some strange reasons moderators of AD thought I provoked, enticed, or trolled for responses even though questions I had were legitimate and my opinions were genuine. Nice to hear those "facts." Apparently AD moderators never met me and somehow they've gotten their sensibilities challenged. I'm sure AD is nice. No doubts. Lots of subjects to peruse and participate in. I'll just wait until my ban is up tomorrow based on their "facts" about what I did. A measley one day ban with two others who got banned as well. Nothing to worry about. It'll be fun once I'm in again. They don't call me Kokonut for nothing.

Do You Miss Deaf Republicans 2008 blog?

Are you experiencing Deaf Republicans 2008 withdrawals? Well, it is closed. No longer in existence or available. There's nothing you can do about it to revive it. None. Nada. I don't care what you say I won't bring DR2008 back. It's history. Understand?

Ok. So I may have depressed you some but don't worry. There's a new blog out now without the year attached to it and it's called "Deaf Conservative Republicans."

Not just Republicans but conservative Republicans. You may be a conservative and not realize it or know what it means to be a conservative Republican.

Check it out. It is just starting. I will do my political blogging over there and not on Kokonut Pundit. So, don't be surprised if you find a few of them here on the DCRepublicans site since I'll be copying them over to the DCRepublicans site.

Empty Suit, Empty Promises, Lotta Strings

If you don't know by now Obama is recognized as the most liberal Senator out there where he voted 97% of the time with Democrats in Congress and during his campaigning helped by his Chicago thugs (the Clintons brought up "thugs" first when Hillary was still in contention for the race) he made a promise once he get into the White House. He broke two promises so far and that's even before he set foot inside the Oval Office.

The first broken promise was the one where the candidate of "change" was going to bring a new tone to Washington. This one has been broken by Obama's choice for Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel. Representative Emanuel (D- Illinois) is a hard core, far left, liberal as well as being an old Clinton hack. Not only that, but Emanuel is not a "new tone" kind of guy but is a Pit bull of epic proportions. The parallel would have been McCain claiming a new tone but picking Karl Rove as his Chief of Staff.

The second one was that Obama promised to not let lobbyists have a place in his new administration. He sure looks raring to go and give these lobbyists jobs like never before.

Despite campaign trail promises that special interests wouldn’t be a part of his administration, President-elect Barack Obama’s has sent signals to the lobbyists that they can get jobs with him.

...the overall message to the lobbying community appears to run counter to the Democratic senator’s campaign promise to keep special interest advocates at arms length.

With Obama's record of hardly ever reaching across the aisle, don't expect him do the same once he sets foot in the White House for the next four years. Just as don't expect the new Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, to be that open minded when he prefered to use a steak knife to point out to Clinton's enemies on a piece of paper.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: He is [a] good old-fashioned Chicago thug, just like Obama is a good old-fashioned Chicago thug. On the night of the Clinton election, Rahm Emanuel was so angry at the president's enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign -- Rahm Emanuel grabbed a steak knife and he began rattling off a list of betrayers, and as he listed their names, he shouted, ‘Dead! Dead! Dead!’ And he plunged the steak knife into the table after every name. This is not a bunch of people that are going to [govern from the center] --

And Obama wants Rahm to be Chief of Staff?

Obama. A man who wears an empty suit and says empty promises but sure has a lotta strings on him right now who thinks government is the answer by extending more control over the people. But according to a Rassmussen poll last month most people agree with Reagan's sentiment in his first inaugural address that "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

So, conservatism isn't dead but very much alive and liberals know that else they wouldn't be wringing their hands about conservative talk radios and how liberals are planning to try a squelch them through an outdated "Fairness Doctrine."

Just watch, it'll all be about control over people in the Obama adminstration and not government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Obama Day?

This would be the most moronic suggestion of the day. Obama zealots are suggesting a new National holiday called "Obama Day" or something to that effect even before he has done anything in office. In fact, in North Korea there is a holiday to celebrate the current leader Kim Jong Il's birthday which is one of the country's most important holidays.

Thousands of people danced and brought flowers in North Korea's capital Friday to celebrate the 65th birthday of "dear leader" Kim Jong Il..

"Dear leader?" That reminds me of something.

Besides, we already have a National holiday called "President Day" which falls on February 18. There is no need for an "Obama Day" holiday. It'd be one of the most idiotic suggestion of the century.

Just when you thought you won the lottery...

Just unreal how people celebrate the Obamesiah's win or their expectation from "The One" on how he could ease the sufferings of his supporters.

At least five people were arrested across the city after Barack Obama's rally in Grant Park, including a woman who slapped a Chicago police officer, saying police couldn't arrest her anymore, prosecutors said today.

Most of the others celebrated the historic occasion with gunfire.

Celita Hart, 19, stood silently in court today when she appeared for a bond hearing.
Prosecutors said Hart, who is black, yelled " 'White [expletive], [expletive] McCain -you white police can't do nothing anymore.'" With that, she reached through the window of a squad car and slapped a white male officer in the face, according to Assistant State's Atty. Lorraine Scaduto.

Gunfire? In a populated area? Shooting in the sky I would surmise? You know gunfire in the air in the past have killed people when bullets came down killing a little girl or boy or somebody else. Anybody who do that sort of thing are morons.

Of course, people expect alot from the Obamesiah thinking he'll pay for their gas and pay off their mortgages, and who knows what else. Remember a bunch of angry Obama supporters demanding that they get paid for their work with Obama after he won the White House? And that was only two days after he won the election! Imagine when they have to wait for the Obamesiah thinking he made a promise on forking them over some free government, tax-payer supported money. They'll be so mad and disillusion I'm sure they'll start firing their guns in the air in anger that they've been duped.

Perhaps the concept called "hard work" or "an honest day's work for an honest pay" may come off a bit foreign for some of these people expecting the Obamesiah to somehow levitate money from the U.S. Treasury and give it to them instead?

Only time will tell and we probably won't have to wait that long to find out.

Obama's New Youth Corp Requirement?

Obama to set up a draft-like bill requiring 13 to 25 year olds to perform community service. Yes, REQUIRE.

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

So for each kid going through middle and high school will have to perform a total of 350 hours of community service over seven years (grades 6 - 12). Plus, if they decide to go to college they must perform an additional 400 hours of service for the four years they are in college. Or if you're a typical Gallaudet University student average length of stay would be 6 years which means Gallaudet University students MUST perform 600 hours of community service.

Now, let's look at the court system on how they punish offenders by sending them to do community work as a punishment.

eBay vote seller gets 50 hours of community service

Glenbrook teen gets 50 hours of community service in hazing

75 hours of community service for $1740.00 theft

Dutch court imposes 200 hours of community service for real-world punishment for virtual theft
Naomi Campbell to carry out 200 hours of community service after attacking police over a lost bag at Heathrow airport

O.J. Simpson's daughter was sentenced Wednesday to 50 hours of community service in a deal with prosecutors that stemmed from a confrontation with police during a fight outside a prep school basketball game.

The chair bounced off one spectator's head and then struck spectator Jennifer Bueno in the face, breaking her nose. Francisco was sentenced to 20 days in jail, 500 hours of community service..defense lawyer say hours "too much"..."highest I've ever seen". .

Requirement by New York University that a student found to have had illegal drugs in his room perform 500 hours of community service was deemed “draconian” by a state judge, who ordered the punishment reduced to 100 hours.

Two men who pleaded guilty to "tagging" buildings in Norfolk with spray paint have been sentenced to wear T-shirts identifying them as graffiti offenders while they perform 500 hours of community service.

Interesting. With an Obama administration he is going to force middle, high and college school kids to perform community service much like a judge who orders an offender many hours of community service. Also, where will the Obama administration get the money to run these programs which will rival that of our national defense budget that runs around $600 billion dollars a year. Where will the money come from? Why, from you guys. The middle class people who will see a tax increase when Obama promised there wouldn't be a tax increase on 95% of the working class.

You see, it's patriotric to pay higher taxes and it is also patriotic when the government basically drafts 13 to 25 year olds and force them to do required community service.

What will happen if one refuses to do community service as a requirement in school? Get punished by a judge and perform more community service?

Like I said and I will keep repeating this, this is just the beginning of what socialist and Marxist ideals are all about.

UPDATE: Obama also when he suggested this new youth program a few months back that he promised to boost the size of the military. With the new this program of Obama's where will he get the extra money? From you! The middle class people who will see a rise in taxes on their income.

UPDATE II: Oopsie. Change-O, Government-O drops the word "require" from their vocabulary in Obama's Change.gov website on "voluntary service" for Obama's new "Youth Corps" program.

Right.

UPDATE III: Obama forgot to remove "require" in one of his Change.gov website on service requirement,

Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama and Biden will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.

Heck, I'd say that those that get their SSI do 100, 200 or even 500 hours of community service as an abled body person as part of the agreement in order to receive welfare help. Picking up trash might be a good start for some people.

UPDATE IV: Jeepers! Even my old high school, Berkley High, in a math tutoring forum did one person go off tangent and talked about how community requirement should be forced, er, required of students to do their community service as a "duty" and as part of their graduation requirement,

What I don't understand is why there isn't a general community service requirement for all students. All students, not just those in AP and Honors classes, need to learn that they can and should contribute to the community. They should be doing this community service, not just to get into college, but because it is their responsibility as a citizen in this society. This community service requirement ideally could be met even by helping to clean up and maintain vegetation on campus. I've been rather surprised that very few students currently participate in ongoing efforts to make the school a pleasant and attractive place. The students seem to be in an entitlement mode - it's someone else's job to provide for them. A community service requirement could help teach them that they have responsibilities to help themselves and the community.

No doubt by now that person is an Obama Koolaid drinker.

Even Maryland school system require community service as a requirement for graduation.

Maryland was the first state department of education to require community service...

UPDATE V: Looks like Gallaudet University once required "community service" in order to graduate back in 1997. But they changed that where it is no longer a requirement but there is a caveat in that,

22. What happened to the community service requirement?

Under the new curriculum, this has been replaced with the service learning requirement. Community service is no longer required for graduation under the new curriculum. Students following catalog requirements prior to 2007-08 will continue to follow the community service requirements.

Ok, Jim Jones, you have the floor. What flavor will they drink now?

UPDATE VI: Here's what Gallaudet University's requirement on community service in their 2006-2007 academic information handbook.

* Completion of the community service requirement. Every undergraduate student entering Gallaudet University will be required to contribute 80 hours of approved community service. The level of community service required will be adjusted for transfer and readmitted students. For transfer and readmitted Required community students entering with: service prior to graduation:
Senior standing 20 hours
Junior standing 40 hours
Sophomore standing 60 hours
Freshman standing 80 hours

Remember, it said "approved community service" and so it's like they didn't have much say on choosing. It's funny, you pay Gallaudet University the tuitions and fees and they say you must perform community service as a graduation requirement like picking up trash and do other unpaid work that a student actually had pay to get to learn about academics of their choice. I wonder why Gallaudet University dropped that requirement just last year?

Gallaudet Declining Enrollment

Interesting bit of information from the Gallaudet University's Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request about the long term enrollment trend and reason why enrollment remain small today and why it continues to drop.

Enrollment trends. Undergraduate enrollment at Gallaudet has generally declined over the past 17 years from a high of 1,825 in 1990. In the fall of 2007 (fiscal year 2008), the enrollment of degree-seeking undergraduates was 1,080, graduate enrollment was 414, and enrollment of non-degree seeking students was 139, the lowest levels in well over 20 years. The total enrollment of 1,633 includes 1,236 full time students and 397 part-time students. Maintaining or increasing undergraduate enrollment is difficult for Gallaudet because of the literacy and communications challenges facing many of its prospective students and the need to achieve an appropriate balance between providing access to as many students as possible and maintaining high standards. In addition, students who are deaf and hard of hearing have increasing access to programs at regular postsecondary institutions and the majority of students who are deaf and hard of hearing are attending these programs.

Enrollment data for fiscal year 2009 will not become available until October of 2008. However, enrollment is likely to continue to decline in fiscal year 2009. This is partly due to lingering effects of the negative publicity resulting from student protests in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, negative reviews from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), increasing mainstream options for students who are deaf, and the new, more stringent admission standards being implemented at Gallaudet in fiscal year 2008.

Note the bold highlighted letters in red.

From Gallaudet University's Program Report:

Measure 1.1 of 11: The number of full-time and part-time,
degree-seeking undergraduate students enrolled at Gallaudet
University. (Desired direction: increase) 1365

Year....Target...Actual.........................Status
1998......1,339......Measure not in place
1999......1,250.......1,300.........................Target Exceeded
2000.....1,250......1,318..........................Target Exceeded
2001.....1,250.......1,321.........................Target Exceeded
2002.....1,250......1,243.........................Did Not Meet Target
2003.....1,250......1,243.........................Did Not Meet Target
2004.....1,250......1,236.........................Did Not Meet Target
2005.....1,250......1,207..........................Did Not Meet Target
2006.....1,250......1,274..........................Target Exceeded
2007.....1,250......1,206..........................Did Not Meet Target
2008.....1,250......1,018..........................Did Not Meet Target
2009.....1,250....(October 2008)......... Pending

The declininng enrollment was due to a lot of factors and that was mostly because of increasing communication accessibility at many universities and colleges for a deaf and hard of hearing person to choose from. But it is interesting that the report blame the Gallaudet Protest in helping stifle enrollment, of course. The falling enrollment didn't occur over the last 5 years like some Deaf bloggers insist but rather over the last 19 years because of improving communication technology and services offered in many universities and colleges for deaf and hard of hearing students.

But note the precipitous drop for 2008 enrollment figure from 2006. A drop of almost 260 undergrad students. Ironically, 2006 year showed an uptick of undergrad enrollment from 1207 to 1274 students that exceeded target expectation for that year in 2006. That was also the year when the Gallaudet University protest occurred. Prospective students along with their parents saw the whole protest situation from the news media that left a bad taste in their mouths about Gallaudet University and decided to send their kids to a different university or college that have excellent communication services. We won't know what the enrollment figure for the 2008-2009 school year until sometime this year. But the G.U. Fiscal Year 2009 report warned that they expect more enrollment decline for the 2008-2009 school year.

Also, from 2000 to 2008 the amount of money appropriated to Gallaudet University from Congress went from $85 million dollars to $133 million dollars. And for 2009 budget Gallaudet University is asking an additional $600,000 from Congress on top of the $133 million dollars (see page 8). And they justify the additional money while enrollement declines? I wonder what will the budget request be like for 2010 when a Democrat majority led Congess in an Obama adminstration will do to help with the budget cuts? Will Gallaudet University be one of those soon-to-be budget cut victims and see abudget cut of, oh say, $50 million dollars for 2010? Maybe Obama will use a scalpel approach, a term he used extensively throughout his campaigning, and slice some numbers off for universities and colleges that get their fundings from Congress?

For the first time budget request for 2008 and 2009 remain the same at $59.2 billion dollars (which represents almost 2% of the entire Federal budget). Perhaps the additional $600,000 request by Gallaudet University for 2009 will not be met?

I'd say that Gallaudet University have about 2 years before their future increase budget requests will not be met but see a slash instead from a Democrat-controlled Congress. Will we see the start of a real decline of Gallaudet University and go below the devastating 1000 undergrads enrollment mark? After all, for 2007 - 2008 school year, enrollment figure was at 1018 students. Will Gallaudet University slowly be transformed into a university of mostly hearing students as a way to survive? The Department of Education already approved, starting in 2006, that Gallaudet University can admit up to 5% of the newly enrolled undergraduate students be hearing undergraduate students (see page 13).

Will Gallaudet University thrive or wither under an Obama administration? I'm thinking the latter. But congrats to those who "successful" participated in the Gallaudet protest which helped manage to scare away 260 prospective students from enrolling at Gallaudet University. We'll see how 2008-2009 enrollment year will pan out, and especially the 2009-2010 year when MSCHE reaffirmed Gallaudet’s Accreditation in June, 2008 which could mean an increased enrollment for undergraduate students. But we'll see.

Atlanta Braves Baseball Donates Money to AVT

This is a great contribtuion by the Atlanta Braves baseball who donated $2500.00 for future scholarships toward Auditory-Verbal therapy (AVT) in teaching kids to hear and speak without the use of sign language.

ATLANTA—October 10, 2008— At a recent Atlanta Braves game, the Auditory-Verbal Center Inc. was awarded $2,500 to be used for scholarships toward Auditory-Verbal therapy. Each year the Atlanta Braves Foundation grants funds to youth-serving organizations that focus on health, education, and recreation; and the Auditory-Verbal Center (AVC) was proud to be a first-time recipient.

“AVC offers an opportunity for mildly to profoundly deaf children to learn how to hear and speak without the use of sign-language or lip reading; it is a great honor for this unique work to be recognized by an organization such as the Atlanta Braves Foundation.” says Debbie Brilling, executive director of the Auditory-Verbal Center, Inc.

I remember back then living near Atlanta, Georgia during the mid 1970s and early 1980s my family would attend the Braves baseball game soaking in all that experience up in the bleachers. And watch Dale Murphy go at bat and hit a home run.

Cure for Hearing Loss One Step Closer....

Scientists were able to narrow down a key gene called Atoh1 (also known as Math1 - ) which cause cells to develop into hair cells but that these cells function like normal hair cells. So far, hearing loss may be repaired by cell transplantation using human umbilical cord Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSC) since they show that a small number migrated to the damaged area inside the cochlea and repaired sensory hair cells and neurons.

Researchers used sensitive tracing methods to determine if the transplanted cells were capable of migrating to the cochlea and evaluated whether the cells could contribute to regenerating neurons and sensory tissue in the cochlea.

"Our findings show dramatic repair of damage with surprisingly few human-derived cells having migrated to the cochlea," said Roberto P. Revoltella, MD, PhD, lead author of the study. "A fraction of circulating HSC fused with resident cells, generating hybrids, yet the administration of HSC appeared to be correlated with tissue regeneration and repair as the cochlea in non-transplanted mice remained seriously damaged."

Results also showed that cochlear regeneration was less in the transplanted group deafened by noise rather than chemicals, implying that damage was more severe when induced by noise. Regenerative effects were greater in mice injected with a higher number of HSC. They also found that regeneration of cochlear tissues improved as time passed.

According to Revoltella, their results suggest the possibility of an "emerging strategy for inner ear rehabilitation….providing conditions for the resumption of deafened cochlea."

This can only mean one thing and that this particular study will surely speed up the date to the day when hearing loss in humans can ultimately be cured by those with sensorineural hearing loss (i.e. nerve deafness). For the 30 million people in the United States with hearing loss, this is great news. Except, perhaps, not for some of the 900,000 cultural deaf people who sees this news as a "threat" to their cultural ideals.

Governor Palin signs "Thank You" at end of RNC Speech

At approximately 39:14 into the video you can see her sign exactly the same signing motion as in the Gratitude Campaign by signing "Thank you" which matched with what she was saying to the crowd (or perhaps to troops or deaf people?). But at 39:19 she signs "Thank you" as one would sign in ASL and you can briefly see her mouth the words "Thank you" right before the camera pulled away from her. It sure does look like she signed "Thank you."


Governor Sarah Palin's RNC Speech.



Short clip version of the "Gratitude Campaign." Of course, some in the Deaf community raised a needless big stink over this style of gesture saying it was "wrong" when it wasn't really at all.

Its....Governor Palin for Veep!

McCain chooses Governor Palin for his vice president pick!


P A L I N!

What does she bring for the Republican party?


Palin is open to ANWR drilling.

She visits our wounded troops in Germany while Obama does not.

Palin is against earmark spending.

She's has 5 years of executive experience which is way more than "O"bama which he has 0 (zero) experience and plus many more years in political office than "O"bama.

Sarah Palin began serving in political office in 1992. Barack Obama began serving in 1997. (For the benefit of our resident hippie trolls, I'll do the math for you: Palin's been in public office FIVE years longer than the Messiah.) Joe Biden has been in the U.S. Senate forever. So, in terms of total years of public service, the three stack up as follows:

1. Biden
2. Palin
3. Obama

In terms of executive experience, there's not even a contest. Sarah Palin first served in an executive capacity in 1997, and took over her first state-level executive branch position in 2003. From what I can determine, Barack Obama has never served in an executive capacity at any level, and Joe Biden has never served in an executive capacity at any level. So, in terms of executive experience, the three stack up as follows:

1. Palin
2. Biden and Obama (tied, with zero each.)

She voted NO to the bridge to no where.

Several staunch Hillary supporters who refuse to vote Obama do like her

She had done so much to cut wasteful spending in Alaska. Her approval rating in the 90s and is the most popular governor in Alaska (probably in any state), when she took office in 2006.

She is a conservative.

She is a lifetime NRA member.

She is a mother.

She gave birth to a son last year with Down Syndrome and while she was pregnant she took a genetic screening test of her fetus and found out her unborn son has D.S. The doctor suggested to her three times on aborting her son. She refused! A staunch pro-life supporter, obviously.

She fiscally conservative and has proven it over the last two years since 2006 as governor of Alaska by curtailing wasteful government spending. Even reducing her own salary and getting rid of a corporate jet that cost tax-payers too much money.

She is certainly NOT a protectionist.

Palin's son is about to go to Iraq. He's in the Army.

She's an athlete.

Snow mobiler champion, I believe.

Loves hockey.

A solid, fiscally responsible, conservative Republican. A reformer on spending. And just an all around smart and classy lady. Even James Dobson today said that he'd pull that lever and vote

Her nick name given to her while in high school? "Baracuda." Her nickname is apt now if you read this story about her. And more stuff on her here.

Now, I feel much better on voting for McCain than I did before. No nose plug for me on this one. I will now throw my full support behind McCain and Palin for 2008.

McCain/Palin for 2008!

Imagine...no deaf babies.

To celebrate the recent news of the advancing biotechnology that will one day, very soon, offer those with hearing loss the opportunity to have their hearing loss cured, I have a new product at my Kokonut Pundit's store. I am introducing a new design on a t-shirt for those who share the same hope that someday biotechnology will offer a medical solution to help restore or cure hearing loss that affect 30 million people in the United States. And help spread the awareness of these amazing biomedical advances.