Stories below the fold

Culture wars update: Stop singing God Bless America, because  it upsets him.

I am always bemused at people who don't know enough about the English language to realize that saying "God Bless" is an old fashioned way to say thank you  to someone.

And the song was Irving Berlin's way to thank America for letting him live in peace at a time when his relatives in Russia were being killed in pogroms (and later became popular when the rest of his relatives were being killed by Hitler). The point is that it thanks America for freedom of religion. And in today's anti religion frenzy by the elites, that is the problem.


But never mind: it's part of a larger agenda to censor the name of the deity in public.

And more than 88% of atheists dislike the song, Kaskowitz found. (Quick aside: We atheists also hate having “In God we Trust” on the currency and in the courtrooms of a country whose Constitution bars the “establishment of religion” — but that’s a fight for another day.)

Update: I seem to remember an almost identical demand published by a "minister" (who did not work at a church) in the Washington Post awhile back.

So the question is: Why was this published? Is there a sudden outcry to stop singing a patriotic song that mentions God?

Both bring up the almost identical argument of the first amendment: Even though this is a private, not a public domain.

And both demand any mention of God belongs in church, not in the public square.

And that, my friends is the point.

Check Mary Eberstat's new book on the liberal attack on free speech.

All of this reminds me of a snippet in the book by Maria Von Trapp, when her children lamented that the Nazis wouldn't allow them to sing certain songs:

"We can't sing anything with God, so that stops us from singing Bach. And we can't sing Mendelsohn because he is Jewish"

change that to Irving Berlin ("God Bless America" and "white Christmas") and Steven Foster and you probably get that right.

Or would singing Bach still be considered a microaggression?



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Te at Trianon reviews the new BBC miniseries War and Peace.

UKGuardian review HEcjRE compares it to earlier versions.


ironic, isn't it, that the anti religious soviet Russia allowed War and Peace to be read, but nowadays, I suspect it's religious themes would get it censored for microaggression

as for the BBC series: It shows religion but is light on why people believe.( But it shows Helene dying of an abortion whereas in the book she died of typhoid. Logical, but who changed that part?)

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Reporter for youth magazine catches herpes in one night stand, now seeks to de stigmatize herpes.

dirty little secret: condoms don't protect against herpes.

TheOther McCain remembers how HIV was used to promote the culture wars.

and gets into the non PC public health facts
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Headlines below the fold

Zika bill fails to pass Congress

Yet the reason this bill failed can be boiled down to one memo and the memories of the government shutdown crisis of 2013. Faced with the choice of either offending Planned Parenthood or failing to pass a bill that provided the Zika money they had been demanding be allocated for months, the Democrats chose the latter. Moreover, they did so because they were also sure that no matter how partisan and divisive their own behavior, Democrats have come to believe that the media will blame Republicans for any Congressional standoff...

 the key moment in the fate of the Zika bill came this week.

AsPolitico reported: 
On Tuesday morning, Planned Parenthood wrote all Senate offices opposing the bill, arguing that “a vote against this bill will be seen as a vote for women’s health care.” 

While liberals like to talk about the power of the National Rifle Association over Republicans, the ability of that influential group to crack the whip over the GOP is nothing when compared to the way Senate Democrats responded to Planned Parenthood’s marching orders 

 headsup Instapundit

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also via Instapundit:

CNN reporter pushes Brexit meme, gets repeatedly corrected by British politician.

USAToday reports Noble prize winners (mostly in medicine) are daring to criticize Greenpeace for opposing "golden rice" which is a GM type of rice designed to save the lives (and sight) of poor children in rice eating lands.

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StrategyPage report on President Rody:

Abu Sayyaf represents what most Filipinos fear most about granting the Moslem minority in the south autonomy. Duterte is known to be innovative and not afraid to try bold solutions.
He has commented that he would try to negotiate, or at least talk to, Abu Sayyaf leaders. If that failed to resolve the terror and banditry problems down there Duterte indicates he would consider declaring martial law in some of the Moslem provinces in the southwest and offer cash rewards for any civilians or security personnel who captured or killed key Abu Sayyaf members. Duterte also has a track record of cracking down on corruption and doing things considered by some as outside the law (and by others as necessary). All this would be necessary to have a chance of finally shutting down the mayhem that has long characterized the Moslem south.

I  talked to one of Ruby's teachers who attended our new mayor's inauguration and she said he also has declared war on criminals.

Heh. It might be nice to have the cops and the mayor's private armies go against the criminals instead of their political rivals. One hopes they don't kill too many bystanders. (personal note: our nephew was killed as a bystander when an ex mayor arranged some retired NPA guys to shoot his political rival, but only killed two of his sons and some bystanders... politics here is that clans run the place, so that mayor got away with it but when he retired, his wife lost the election...but the next cycle his daughter won. The bishop ordered all local candidates to take a "no violence" pledge, so it meant that the next hit job didn't occur until a few days after she took office, again killing bystanders).

Kuya however says the mayor's family has been involved in gambling and drugs in the past... which means he might actually know who to go after.

--------------

BBC reports the hole in the Antarctic ozone hole is  getting better.

Remembering the Somme

BBC reports the royals will attend the memorial ceremony.

HistoryExtra podcast discusses the battle

Wikipedia article notes:

The first day on the Somme was also the worst day in the history of the British army, which had c. 57,470 casualties....The battle is notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank.

Factoid of the day

English Historical fiction blog: The History of Sherry

Blame the Phoenicians.

The roots of sherry go back three thousand years in Spain, where it appears that the Phoenicians brought vines and the knowledge of wine making. The city of Jerez, a key area for the production of sherry, was established by the Phoenicians as Xera. Other cultures contributed to the development of this wine and it was imported to Rome. When the Moors occupied Spain in the 8th century, despite the Muslim prohibition against the consumption of alcohol, they continued the cultivation of grapes for the production of wine for medicinal purposes and for raisins

Origin

late 16th century: alteration of archaic sherris, interpreted as plural, from Spanish (vino de) Xeres or ‘Xeres (wine)’ (Xeres being the former name of Jerez)

Family news

Today President Duterte is being sworn in.

Live coverage:

The schools are closed, but the banks are open, so I went to put in a check (my pension arrives on the 28th) and then we ate sigsig at a local restaurant.

It's raining outside, so the dogs are staying inside with me.

Before there was Bernie, Robert Reich spilled the beans

I mentioned Robert Reich in my last blog rant...

I am not sure if his book "The Work of Nations" was a description for warning people, or a guidebook for those making the NWO. I presume the first.

I don't have his book here with me, but this book review by Scott London summarizes his prediction/warning.


Reich divides American jobs into three broad categories for assessing their contribution to new the global economy. These are "symbolic- analytic" services, routine production services, and "in-person" services.

The first of these is carried out by what Reich calls "symbolic analysts" engineers, attorneys, scientists, professors, executives, journalists, consultants and other "mind workers" who engage in processing information and symbols for a living.

these are the winners.

  Routine production workers and in-person service workers will fare much worse in the new economy, according to Reich. Routine production workers include those who perform repetitive tasks — assembly line workers, data processors, foremen, and supervisors. Examples of in- person service workers are waitresses, janitors, hospital attendants, and child care workers.

these two catagories are losers.


 The economic fates of Americans are beginning to diverge, Reich observes. And the technocrats are becoming separated from the average person.

Reich notes, "symbolic analysts are quietly seceding from the large diverse publics of America into homogenous enclaves, within which their earnings need not be redistributed to people less fortunate than themselves."

His solution: More welfare to stop people from being poor, more education so they can get better jobs.

Since economics is my weak point, I suggest you read the whole thing, or better yet, read the book.

Slippery slope? Nah driving off a cliff (rant)

BabyTrudeau, who has just passed an extensive euthanasia bill that so far won't let doctors and nurses "opt out" is now a Comic book hero in the Mavel universe.

California not only is legalizing suicide (but not yet forcing doctors to do it) is considering passing a bill to legalize "recreational" marijuana, as if the "medical" shops don't already sell it to anyone who wants it.

If this doesn't remind one of the "cheap gin" sold in London slums to discourage riots, then try googling that... Pushing alcohol also worked with the Irish and the AmerIndians to keep them from fighting back, and I won't even get into the conspiracy theories of Bush I and Clinton pushing cocaine in the black inner city (albeit if you change the word pushing to looking the other way, you might not get an argument from me).

Bread and circuses, and if that doesn't work, try getting them drunk/stoned so they don't care.

The Supreme court decided that Abortion clinics are not allowed to be forced to hold to the standards of other surgical centers (Joan Rivers alert for what happens when minor surgery with light anesthesia is done improperly).

President Obama decides a gay bar is a cultural heritage site.

Apparently gays saw health code and vice squad regulations shutting down bars and bathhouses that encouraged multiple encounters with unknown partners as "discrimination", so their objections are now considered a triumph for "diversity", never mind the HIV, STD and Hep B epidemics that resulted..."love wins" is the propaganda, but the reality is sex triumphs everything, including public health.


And the Supreme court refused to interfere with a law mandating that all pharmacies carry abortion pills. Yes, individual pharmacists can opt out (dang that civil rights law of 1964 still protects them even though President Obama removed the HHS regulations protecting medical personnel). However, if you own a pharmacy, tough shit cookie.

In the meanwhile, California is pushing a law to make religious colleges pay for abortion, while by adding "abortion" to mandated health care, Catholics including churches will be forced to pay for them.

And I won't even go into the remaking the military to be politically correct (ignoring Grecham's law)

on the other hand, Gresham's law seems to be taking over the entire country, at least if one reads the papers.

Out with those who work hard, stay sober, are faithful, and believe in God. Replaced by the "new" currency of welfare for the "poor", importing cheap workers who won't complain if they live in poverty, encourage promiscuity, and limit freedom of religion to "freedom of worship",meaning you can go to church on Sunday, but heaven help you if you live your religious convictions outside of church.

in the meanwhile, the racial polarization started by Soros' money and Obama's minions as BLM is getting worse, and the discontented are backing Trump, who in effect say racism? I'll give you racism.

I have to laugh at the NYT publishing Bernie spilling the beans on what is going on. Heck, this entire agenda was outlined in a book by Robert Reich before he was made sect of labor under Clinton...yet not one labor leader seemed to connect the dots that maybe he wasn't their best friend.

In summary, Grescham's law is taking over the USA

alas, that means these things will be pushed all over the world with the hint if you don't go along with it, we will cut your aid money

Since the aid money goes straight into the politician's pockets, this does make them pay attention.

In the meanwhile, instead of pointing out right and wrong and the loveliness of an ethical life, the Pope is busy apologizing to sinners (or maybe the translation was fuzzy: those with same sex attraction or homosexuals can be good Catholics but the word "gay" implies one involved in the gay lifestyle, which is something different altogether).

The church will now promote the idea that Christianity is about "mercy" and stress falling in love with Jesus, (and caring for Gaia) not with living an ethical life.

Yes, trying to coop the warm fuzzy of the "Love God and he'll make you rich" or some of the "pentecostals" and liberal churches who love jesus but don't bother to scare away their members with dogma and rules, and "new age I'm- spiritual not religious" types.

So now I put up with a "god made me this way and he loves me" as the explanation why all my husband's hard earned money is being wasted and I am forced to support his family.

Well, God made me a confucian curmudgean, and I say the hell with being polite.

end rant

Podcast of the week

The Trojan War podcast is a colourful summary of the story


(be advised it is R rated for sex and violence).

and a good series about the book can be found on youtube (until the copyright cops find it).

Lecture one




her lectures on the Odyssey are here.


and U MO has a lecture course on heroes HERE

Stories below the fold

2500 join in funeral of drug lord in Cebu.

well whey not? he made millions, spread misery, and death, but hey, once in awhile he'd give you 5 kg of rice (about 5 dollars worth).

and besides: marchers were paid 500 pesos (12 dollars) a piece to march in the funeral procession (minimum wage is 600 a day here, but many don't earn that much).

and of course, like our murderous ex mayor, or like the Mafia in the USA, he was buried after a Catholic funeral mass....


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Who is helping with the burials and/or hospital bills of the Orlando Victims who were undocumented resident?

Hispanics in Florida are usually Cubans or Colombians, but the article notes many of the victims were PuertoRicans. A local commenter on FR notes that despite it's reputation as a gay nightclub, that a lot of non gays went there for the dancing and music.

But of course, if you notice it was terrorism, how could you use the atrocity to blame the Republicans or pressure the Catholic church to change it's moral rules on sexuality?

However, Al qaeda noticed and has instructed it's minions to start shooting straight white people.. presumably  in order that they can't be accused of hate crimes.

and authorities worry more soft targets will be hit in the near future:

The Abu's here are aiming at surfer and diver resorts....

and the French will have armed police on their beaches this summer.

Egypt air's black boxes are found, and the French will investigate the crash as a crime, not a terrorist attack, presumably taking treebeard's advice: "don't be hasty"

I'ts going to be a long summer: headlines now are saying that there was an attack in Istanbul airport.


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they are working on a Zika vaccine.

maybe in a year or two.

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remembering one hero in the Battle of the Somme:

Sgt Quigg was awarded the Victoria Cross in July 1916 after spending seven hours making forays into no man’s land to bring back wounded comrades during the Battle of the Somme.

Blessed are the peacemakers

Via Prof P:

He was a rapper trying to stop violence in Baltimore. Tyriece Travon Watson, better known as Lor Scoota, had just finished hosting a charity basketball game. The fliers advertising the event had said, “Pray for peace in these streets.” Music artists and important faces from around the city had come together to prove they could get along.

but on the way home, he was shot: apparently a deliberate murder, not a random act of violence.
The question is why? Because he was a peacemaker? Or because he dissed someone? Or because someone was angry at him?
 Sigh.

The Incredible Indestructable Twinkie

40 year old Twinkie still going strong.

ABC News reports the experiment started in 1976 when Roger Bennatti was teaching a lesson to his high school chemistry class on food additives and shelf life.
After a student wondered about the shelf life of the snack, Bennatti sent the students to the store with some money.
When they returned with the treat, Bennatti ate one and placed the still-surviving Twinkie on the blackboard. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-06-year-old-twinkie-strong.html#jCp

more HERE. 

the science of Twinkies

and the Post Apocalyptic uses of twinkies.

Cat item of the day

Politics is crazy, the Pope is imploding the church, and the internationalists are threatening a major recession to punish the Brexit bunch

Quick! bring on the CATS!

Confusion in the faith? Mis statement or confusion?

Father Z insists the Pope was taken out of context....

yes I agree with a lot of what the Pope says, and that his remarks are made out of context.

But are these merely careless remarks as his defenders state while pointing to his "official" statements, or is he being "jesuitical" and craftily sowing confusion so that the agenda of the destroyers can take over?

This thoughtful analysis of the Pope's letter on marriage discusses the problems.

Where is Mother Anglica when we need her?

The Pope continues to spread confusion with his politically correct  remarks.. usually he does this "off the cuff"... true, these remarks are not dogma, but they are pushed by the MSM as if they were.

One is reminded of this rant, by Mother Angelica, when the PC decided to have a lady mime represent Jesus at World Youth Day.



so where is the shepherd who guards the sheep from the wolves?

Alas, as Professor Podles, an expert on abuse in the church, lamented:

Franics is a "fixer", not a reformer.

Francis is a fixer. Whenever a parish or diocese experience a disaster, a fixer is sent in, as O’Malley was to Boston. Francis is the papal fixer. He is changing the subject from sexual abuse by his charm, hominess, and willingness to let people indulge their minor vices without a censoring voice from the clergy.A fixer differs from a reformer in that a fixer does not address the roots; he is not radical. He merely papers over the problem, merely puts a poultice on the cancer.

and given his recent letter on the family, which is being spun to destroy the sacredness of marriage, and his off the cuff remarks of the last few weeks, he is not even putting a poultice on the cancer of sexual degeneration and family breakdown: He is saying cancer is good for you, while condemning doctors who say radical surgery is necessary as being rigid and evil.

sorry, but I'm angry.

He has no right to destroy the church in order to get the PC and MSM to praise his actions.

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update: Father Z said he was misquoted. 

Well, I'm tired of these constant misquotes and taken out of context defenses. This is a grown man who shouldn't have to be told over and over again to be cautious in speaking.

and if this was an isolated incident, I'd be more charitable.

Stories below the fold

The good news: Fallujah has been liberated:
the bad news:  AlJ blames the gov't for the refugees' problems.

I read AlJ because their African news reporting is good...
True, they are biased (not just pro Arab Islamicist types but it's editorials are full of well known American leftists) but the bad news is that AlJ is considered one of the least biased news sources in the Arab world.

Maybe "why they hate us" is because there is no "Radio Free Caliphate" out there.

yes there is BBC and CNN Arabian services, but given the open anti American bias I see on CNNInt here in the Philippines, I wonder if they are also biased... if they aren't they will be as soon as the Donald takes over.

and yes we have a CNN Philippines, in English, now. I don't usually watch it: too cheerful... (I prefer the earnest eyed reporters on ABS CBN)

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Corruption and murder in Mexico? Don't tell the press.

StrategyPage has the latest, but one wonders about the back story on how the "violent" teacher's protest shot so many policemen.

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Conspiracy Theory of the day: The convenient death of a corrupt ex-UN official.

One source told me, “During the trial, the prosecutors would have linked Ashe to the Clinton bagman Ng. It would have been very embarrassing. His death was conveniently timed.”

you don't say.

But my favorite quote in the article:

 Ashe’s lawyer Jeremy Schneider told me he is sure Ashe’s death was an accident. “There is not one iota of evidence that it was homicide. This is nothing at all like Vince Foster.” 

Hmm...does Schneider know something we don't know?

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rewrite the history books: rice paddies were use in Japan 2500 years ago.

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 I read Garrison Keillor is retiring from PBS, but his writer's almanac podcast is still here.

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Lament.

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the "SOME PIG!" news story of the day:

MomJones reports a Chinese superbug has spread from pigs to you... via migrating seagulls.

China uses a lot of antibiotics for their farm animals, but MJ blames the US/multinationals for the problem, since they were the ones who started the practice.

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The South Pacific: where satellites go to die.

recent catalog of wrecked spacecraft fragments at the cemetery would list some 145 Russian Progress modules, four Japanese HTV cargo ships, five of ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicles, six Russian Salyut space stations and one Russian Mir space station. Expect many more residents to arrive over the next decade as the ISS completes its multi-decade mission.

 via DavidReneke



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Manmade pollution is a major problem, but so is "natural" pollution.

From the WHO:

An estimated 200 million people worldwide are exposed to arsenic concentrations in drinking water that exceed the recommended limit of 10 µg/l1 as set out in the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO).2 The majority of this exposed population lives in southern Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal and Viet Nam. In addition, elevated levels of arsenic have been found in several countries in Latin America, such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Mexico. Recent estimates suggest that at least 4.5 million people in Latin America are exposed to arsenic levels higher than 50 µg/l – the Bangladeshi threshold.3

a lot of this is from minerals in the ground water, but it is also a side effect of mining.

And one dirty little secret is that brown rice can contain arsenic if it is grown with contaminated water.

Consumer reports on which brown rice is safest.

the good news: Philippine brown rice (such as our family grows and sells) is safe.

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erasing history... how many young people know the history of communism? And how many know the story on why it collapsed?

LINK

A new film, Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism, has just been released. It charts the secret history of the struggle that intensified from the night of that Papal election. It is a story of a Pope, a US President, a British Prime Minster and an assorted bunch of Communist Party bureaucrats and tyrants vying for control of Europe. Whereas this reading of 20th Century European history will come as no surprise to some, to others it will seem an outlandish thesis.

Stalin once quipped: How many (army) divisions does the Pope have?

And here is the answer:




headsup via GetReligionBlog who quips:

Another question: How did John Paul II fail to win the Nobel Peace Prize at some point during that era? Can you think – in this weekend after Brexit – of better symbol of the values of the post-Christian Europe than that strange fact?

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the Panama canal 2.0:

wider so larger container ships can go through it. It will help China send stuff via larger ships to the eastern US.

the problem? Many US ports aren't large enough to handle the ships.

a couple days ago, I caught a snippet of Trump complaining about potholes and the deterioration of the US infrastructure.

Well, it's not just potholes on roads: 2015 article has a port official in Charleston warning that  US ports not upgrading to handle modern container shipping.

the article notes that Charleston SC and Savannah are deepening their ports.

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And the most important Brexit story of the day:

No, it won't affect Game of Thrones.

backstory: when it started, they got seed money from the EU, but haven't needed it in recent years.

And no, I don't watch it. Too depressing...

Hackers Prank the remain petition

I noted earlier that there had been so many signatures on the petition in the UK to "remain" that it must have been multiple posts by people, and maybe an organized attack.

I suspected fraud, but didn't think the BBC etc who were reporting it breathless would fall for a spambot attack.

But they did. LINK

headsup Instapundit.

who also has links to the EU bureaucrats teakettle and banana regulations that really made people annoyed.

Hackers Prank the remain petition

I noted earlier that there had been so many signatures on the petition in the UK to "remain" that it must have been multiple posts by people, and maybe an organized attack.

I suspected fraud, but didn't think the BBC etc who were reporting it breathless would fall for a spambot attack.

But they did. LINK

headsup Instapundit.

who also has links to the EU bureaucrats teakettle and banana regulations that really made people annoyed.

The guys behind the science

The LATimes has a nice article about a person who you probably never heard of, in a job you probably didn't know existed:

A scientific glass blower at CalTech who helps devise flasks etc. so the scientist can do their thing.

“It allows students and Rick to just brainstorm about what's possible,” said Jonas Peters, an inorganic chemist whose lab is filled with Gerhart’s elaborate glass coils, diffusion pumps and vacuum systems. “If it doesn't work, you go back, he changes something, you try it again. There’s this iterative process of trying to make an apparatus that works for an experiment in a way that's very custom and very interactive.”

His name is Rick Gerhart, and he helps make glass apparatus for experiments.

more HERE.

Photo credit AP

so why use a glassblower when you can just buy one from a supply store?

  Machines aren't likely to replace glassblowers, given the fragile nature of glass and the precision with which it must be handled. There's also little need for mass production since much of the equipment works with only one experiment, Gerhart said.

Rewrite the script: The times they are a-changing

StrategyPage has an article on the FARC truce in Colombia

Rewrite your screenplay, Hollywood. Colombia is safer and thriving but socialist Venzuela is falling apart.

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AP:Vote Leave supporters celebrated their victory at Westminster on Friday

BBC surveys some ordinary voters who supported Brexit. All cite the EU bureaucracy bullies as the reason.

Soros is angry about it.

Mr Soros made huge profits in 1992's "Black Wednesday" by betting against the British pound as it crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Before Friday's vote he warned of a similar meltdown, predicting a Brexit victory would send the pound down by 15-20%. In the event, sterling fell about 10% to a 31-year low. 

translation: Expect him and his friends to cause a stock market collapse to punish those pesky voters.

And this makes me wonder:

2 million petition to rehold the election.

EPA: Protest at Westminister

ah but the petition was on a government website,,, meaning it could be spammed by special interest groups. Report here notes you only have to give your email and your postal code and say you are a citizen.

What could go wrong?

Heck, even a lowly grandmother like myself has three email accounts (one private, one public, and a google email so I can blog).

Indeed, to get that many signers so quickly suggests a prearranged organization is behind it, similar to the Facebook two minute hate stuff.

but ordinary people don't do such things. We have a life.

and two cartoons show the contrast between how it is viewed by the elites

and by the ordinary blokes:

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In our prayers: A tornado and hail storm hit China, injuring many.
And they had major flooding last week.

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President Rody isn't even in yet, but it's open season on drug dealers.

No one is crying: These bozos are behind a lot of the street crime.

and they even arrested a rich UK drug dealer (who in the past would have gotten off with a small gift). Ignore the headlines: there is no death penalty in the Philippines...yet.

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Dining in the days of government regulations:

School is starting

The school year has started here, and Ruby with her teacher are in the dining room, so the dogs and I are here in the bedroom so she doesn't get bitten.

The schools here face a challenge: High school will no longer end at 10 years, but now they have added two years to be equal to the US system of K to 12.

The Manila Bulletin notes this is not the first time that teachers faced a challenge: During World War II, many schools were shut down, and then Manila was destroyed in the fighting, with many killed accidentally in the crossfire by shells (and alas many massacred by the departing Japanese in anger and revenge). (Something to remember when you read about "civilian casualties" when Fallujah etc are liberated).

so anyway, how do you reopen schools when many school buildings were destroyed, and many were filled with refugees?

Manila Bulletin story here from the memoirs of Juan C Laya

On Feb. 20, with cannon still firing, the Secretary of Instruction and Information handed R40 to the 33-year-old Laya and ordered him to open a high school.

“My school was to be set up on nothing—no school building, no desks, no teachers, no books, no janitors, no money, nothing at all. There was only myself, as acting principal preferred over more experienced men because I had not collaborated with the Japs.”

North Manila’s three high schools—Arellano, Mapa, and Torres—were filled with refugees and, after three days of searching, Laya succeeded in getting one semester’s use of nine classrooms at Bonifacio Elementary School on Tayuman Street. In three weeks’ time, Manila High School was born with 25 teachers and 832 students.

Read more at http://www.mb.com.ph/class-opening-1945/#KPjvSjG88K2RXF7T.99