California liberals can't have it both ways

This is for the California liberals who blame global warming for their water shortage but then don't get their kids vaccinated.  How can you be so two faced?  Do you only use science when you want to?  If you want to say global warming is causing your lack of water you need to take advantage of years and years of science proving that getting your kids vaccinated prevents diseases that have been dormant for hundreds of years. Thanks to your ignorance diseases that have been long gone for hundreds of years are back and your stupidity is putting babies too young to get vaccinated in harm's way.

Dr Natalia Russo, the Principal PS145, the teachers and staff are helping change PS145 for the better

Parents at ‪‎PS87, ‪PS452 who complain about the schools being overcrowding can enroll their kids at ‪PS191, ‪‎PS145, ‪‎PS185 or ‪‎PS165 which have plenty of room. I can attest to the fact that PS145 is a great school, my daughter just completed Pre K there and I think she's at mid kindergarten, if not first grade level now thanks to the great Pre K teachers, Ms. Brador, Ms. Dinkl and Ms. Lee.

Dr Natalia Russo was named Principal of the school in October 2013. She is outstanding, as is Mrs. Loushonda Mack, Assistant Principal, Mr. Carlos Salamanca, Parent Coordinator and President of the Parent Association, Yassiel Nieves as well as the SLT.  Dr. Russo runs the school with on a strict budget because the school doesn't have large donors that PS87, PS452 PS166 or PS333 has mainly because the students enrolled in the school live in the hosing projects nearby.  I feel this is unfair because you cannot expect a school that gets no big donors to compete with schools that have millions in gifts from large donors.  If you want students to be on an even playing field shouldn't all schools receive the same amount of funding no matter where they are located? PS 87, PS452, PS333 get hundreds of thousands if not millions from donations, yet schools like #PS191, #PS145, #PS185 or #PS165 barely get anything from donations. Maybe donations to schools should be put in one account and evenly distributed to every school.

But with the money the school gets from fundraisers, Dr. Russo as been able to improve the school greatly. Before she got there few textbooks were provided for the kids and they as the teacher read the textbooks. Now they have their own textbooks that they can read along with the teachers.

The PTA of PS145 plan great fundraising events, including school shows and this year they organized a street fair and an outdoor graduation.  The refreshments at the graduation and the shows were donated by many of the local great businesses, including, Soul Cycle, D'Agostino and Madison Square Garden (go knicks and Liberty) and others who wish to remain anonymous.  Council Member MarkLevine , Assemblymember Daniel O'Donnell, Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer and Barbara Nikonorow from The City Parks Foundation also made outstanding contributions.

This year each classroom received butterflies which they saw grow from caterpillars to chrysalises and finally to butterflies when they were set free.  The students drew pictures of the butterflies at every stage. This is very similar to the students at PS145 who start out as Pre K little ones and end as children ready to go to middle school thanks to a great school with great teachers, a great principle, assistant principle and staff.  http://www.ps145m.org/

Maybe Muslim nations should actually do something to stop terrorists instead of funding and training them.

This attack is on the Muslim nations for sitting on their hands and crying to us when they get attacked. 100,000 Isis members can't be defeated by millions in the armed forces in the Muslim nations? Not our problem. Remember what happened in the 1980's when Reagan supported Saddam and Bin Laden? The minute we helped them achieve their goals, they took their aggression out on us. We supported bin laden which then led to 9-11, we supported Saddam and then fought two wars to get rid of him. We need to STOP going into these fu-ked up countries and try to bring democracy because even our best friends in the muslim world like Saudi Arabia have the saudi arabia human rights violations. Let the muslim countries get rid of ISIS, the taliban and al qaeda, the groups they created.

I recall walking with my son and daughter and we saw a organized basketball game on Amsterdam and 100th Street. These games are fun to watch and the players have lots of talent, but what happens a fight broke out which usually happens, did I stay and try to break it up like republicans always want America to do, no I grabbed my kids hands and walked across the street. I know from experience that if you try and break up a gang war, you end up being in the middle fighting both sides. Its time America realized that and stopped trying to break up a war between muslims and other muslims that's been happening for thousands of years.

The Supreme Court decides to take guns away wife beaters, but why not terrorists?

At first, when I saw the headline I thought it must be from the Onion.  After all, how can anyone take second amendment away from wife beaters? How can this be?  What will the NRA say?  After all, if terrorists on a no fly list are entitled to a well regulated militia shouldn't wife beaters also be entitled to guns?

But then I was looking at the word regulated and it says , "controlled or supervised." So by Second Amendment's  use of the word regulated I can only assume our founding fathers meant we should look into who buys guns before we should hand them out.  The Supreme Court must now act and take guns away from those on the terror no fly list just like they will take guns away from wife beaters.

This is what Ron Reagan said "I'm a member of the NRA. And my position on the right to bear arms is well known. But, I support the Brady bill (named for James Scott "Jim" Brady who along with Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley.  Years later James Brady died from his injuries) and I urge the Congress to enact it without delay. It's just plain common sense that there be a waiting period [7 days] to allow local law enforcement officials to conduct background checks on those who wish to buy a handgun."

Why can't republicans who love Ronald Reagan and quote him all the time support his most important opinion that waiting period [7 days] to allow local law enforcement officials to conduct background checks on those who wish to buy a handgun and that a ban on assault weapons be enacted.

Again like Reagan I don't want anyone's guns taken away, but I just want what Reagan wanted, a  waiting period [7 days] to allow local law enforcement officials to investigate the person buying a gun and a ban on assault weapons that should only be used by police officers and military personnel.

yoga pants shouldn't be attire for young teen girls

Let me just start this off by saying I'm not conservative at all.  In fact, most of my conservative friends consider me the most liberal person in the country.  But, I've been noticing a trend lately that concerns me.  The trend involves women of all ages wearing yoga pants or tights, not just to work out in but all day.

Now, I don't have a problem if a woman wants to wear yoga pants or tights and put herself on display for everyone to see, and everyone can see them in biblical sense.  I've noticed those woman wearing yoga pants in the subway getting gawked at by everyone who passes them by.  If that's okay with them then its okay with me.

My issue isn't with them, its with parents of kids allowing their daughters to wear yoga like pants or tights to school and around the city.  Some of those girls I see on the city bus couldn't be older than junior high school age.  I really don't understand why a parent would want their daughter wearing tights with nothing covering them up in and around the city.  This is a dangerous city a times.

Recently I was taking my daughter on the bus to school and it was raining so we decided to take the bus instead of her riding her bike and me walking fast or running along side her (this is the method we usually get to school when its nice out).  On the bus there are always kids going to a public school past where my daughter goes to pre k.  They are nice kids, well mannered and clean cut (mostly if not all white, which is an issue I have with public schools being segregated but that I addressed in a previous essay.)

But lets talk about dress, or how parents allow their girls to dress.  I see these girls dressed in these yoga pant like outfits or tights  and I ask myself two things are their parents actually allowing them to wear these clothes? Do they the sneak out without being noticed by their parents?  

My my daughter wants to dress herself for school and she often tries to get away with wearing tights and my wife or I tell her she needs to wear a dress over the tights.  I guess she sees girls wearing tights that are not much older then her and she wants to emulate them.  I am thankful that my daughter will go to a school that doesn't allow tights to be warn as an outfit.  I am not sure why any school public or private would allow such attire.  Why would a parent or a school want their young girls to wear tights or yoga pants which make them look 4 or 5 year older?  I, for one, am not in a great hurry for my daughter to grow up.  I'd like her to be a little kid for as long as its appropriate for her to be a little kid.

Well your brackets are done and now you wait until....

No this isn't another posting about the NCAA tournament or a blog thanking @DoveMenCare for sponsoring the @nycdadsgroup #citydads March Madness viewing party for the dads night out tomorrow #RealStrength.  (But thank you guys, we really appreciate a night out).  Its for another kind of viewing party where you might score big by getting an acceptance letter  from the Kindergarten of your choice for your child/children which should have arrived.  If your child got into the school you wanted him or her to go to, then good job.  The system worked for you.  If not here are you options.

1) Accept the position.  This is your safety school.  Just like in college you have safety school and reaches.  Accept the safety school, just so you have a school for your child go to go.  After that you wait it out until everyone has their offer letters and they start declining them based on a number of factors (such as moving out of the city, going to private or charter schools or just changing your mind).

You should call the schools and find out where you are on the wait list.  My daughter got wait listed at 5 schools including PS 333, PS 166 (those are our best chances because those are the closest schools to our house.  We also applied to PS 87, PS 9 and PS199, which are nearly impossible to get into for us because the students are zoned for those schools aren't even guaranteed a spot.  Our best chance of getting into a school on our waitlist is PS333, which is 3 blocks and one avenue away.  

I know of people who actually live one block away from PS 333 had the school as their first choice and still didn't get in.  PS 333 which is a largely white school might be trying to diversify their student body by selecting non white students who ranked the school lower than parents of white students who ranked it higher.  It will be interesting when the demographics of the school come out at the end of the year.  My guess is that the city has been coming down on schools like PS 333 and PS 166 for not having a diversified student body, which is why white parents who picked the school higher didn't get in but non white students who picked the school did get it.

I have heard some stories about parents who moved into PS 199 school zone only to be put into another school PS 191 and aren't happy and they shouldn't be.  But here's the problem, everyone wants their kids to go to PS 333, PS 166, PS 87, PS452 and PS 199 and everyone makes those schools their child's first choices.  Guess what not everyone gets into their first or even their second choices.

So pick the school so your child has a school, then do your homework.  Call the schools, see where your child is on the wait list if he or she is in the top 10, maybe you have a chance, if not probably not.  Make an appointment with the board of education asking them to reassign your child to a new school and wait it out.  Don't forget to apply for Charter School, which aren't on the initial application. Also don't forget that just because a school isn't considered "well developed" or "proficient" doesn't mean it isn't good.  PS 163 used to be listed as developing but now.  We applied to PS 163 and got in, but that was our 5th choice.  The school is very nice, but I have a feeling that the grades are skewed because of the gifted and talented program that 163 has.  I'd like PS 163 and PS 166 to just include the grades of the general population of the school and not include G&T in the mix, that way you can make a proper evaluation of the school for your child.

Thank you Albee Baby

When I was a baby I had a doll named Albee.  Who knew the name would be of such great assistance to me some 35 years later.

When my first child Zachary was born in June of 2009, I have to admit I was totally clueless on most baby products.  I barley knew how to open my kid's strollers.  Again, I was clueless.  I recall one of the first times I took my son out by myself.  I took the stroller put him in it and strolled down stairs.  My plan was to go to meet my wife who was getting her hair cut in the village.  My wife was still on maternity leave and this was my first trip out one my own.  The skip hop diaper bag was packed with all the necessities.  I grabbed the stroller and headed out and got a cab.  For some reason I was able to close the stroller and take the car seat part out and situate it safely in the cab.  Everything was going great.  No traffic, we were heading downtown.  I felt so accomplished.  We got to our destination.  I grabbed the car seat, undid the seat belt and carried it to the trunk where I thought I would be able to open it in a snap.  So I tried and tried and and tried even more.  Couldn't get it open so I had to carry the car seat with my son in it and the stroller on my back.  What a disaster. I arrived at the salon in the village and saw my wife and the hairdresser saw me carrying everything and my wife said, "you are going to Albee Baby so they can teach how to do things."

I must admit, some if not most, of the baby products I bought were purchased in other stores, but they were still willing to go through step-by-step how to open and close all my strollers. I had a bugaboo and a  Maclaren baby stroller. I recall we were traveling with our bugaboo in the Philly area when one of the wheels came off.  We were without the stroller the rest of the trip.  We brought it back to the major baby products store, and they were completely unwilling to fix it, saying we had to send it back to he company.  We were furious and demanded they explain how an $800 dollar stroller was already broken and how could we be without a stroller.  The store was unwilling to help us, but Albee's was.  They replaced the wheel in seconds and made sure it was secure.  We used the stroller for five years after that, no thanks to the major baby products chain.  The Albee Baby staff  taught me how to open and close them and even described in detail how to install and take out a car seat.  The salesman  let my wife and I drive the car up to the store and came outside, while they said it wasn't legal for them to install it, he talked us through the entire process step by step.

With the help of the Albee Baby staff, I was able to be confident enough to take the stroller on the subway, this was when most stations didn't have elevators.  I would often see nannies carry their strollers with the kids in them down the stairs and I would be able to do this now confidently (mind you very, very slowly).  I recall being interviewed for a channel 2 news and told them I had the utmost respect for nannies ability to carry strollers with the baby intact up and down the stars.  I brought all my products to Albee baby and got many tutorials and even had them come up to my apartment to see if everything was baby-proofed correctly.

Two years after my son was born my daughter Sarah was born.  At this point I was very confident taking my son anywhere by train.  We took trips to the Bronx Zoo.  The Central Park Zoo,  where we would go for lunch.  The American Museum Of Natural History and Gymboree rounded out our favorite places. When my daughter was born we started using the Bugaboo exclusively, mainly because by now all the stations that I traveled too had elevators and the staff at Albee Baby had installed a skateboard on the stroller which my son would go on while my daughter was in the stroller.  There wasn't a site in NYC that we missed.  I even took them on the Circle Line and to the Statue of Liberty and many, many Knicks games, although my kids were probably better at basketball than the Knicks were.

I'd like to thank the knowledgeable  staff at Albee Baby because without them, I'd still be standing by the salon trying to figure out how to open the stroller.