Loony toons… every last one of ‘em.
Filed under: Economy, Education, Foreign Policy, Politics, Taxes, Uncategorized, Waste
A couple of subject are under my microscope today. Each of them is appaling in it’s own right. First, we have Gov. Blagojevich in Illinois. Is there anyone on the planet that actually believes this guy to be innocent? Now in all fairness, I must give this man his due process.
Evidence toward his guilt: Audio recordings of the man saying that he is trying to profit off of the appointment and may actually appoint himself if nobody wants to pay him what he thinks the senate seat is worth.
Evidence of his innocence: He says that he hasn’t done anything wrong and that ‘they’ are out to get him in order to make it easier for the democrats in Illinois to raise taxes.
Verdict: Guilty as the day is long.
Now, what makes this amusing is that he is making the rounds today on all the lefty morning shows protesting his innocence and demanding that this is some sort of unfair ‘witch hunt’. Then he says that he is being denied due process and makes the case that his being “railroaded” legally speaking is dangerous to all the rest of us because if the government can deny him his due process then they can do it to us. As far as answering to the tapes:
“I can’t address what is on those tapes”.
Does anyone hear a tinge of “I don’t recall senator” in there? In order to believe this guy you have to:
a) Disregard audio recordings of the man describing his intent to commit a crime and conspiring with someone else to do so.
b) Believe that he has a witness (any witness) that will be able to put any of that ‘back in context’ so that we can all understand what he really meant by “this think is f*ing golden, you don’t just give it away for nothing”.
c) Intentionally ignore the fact that he immediately shifts focus to this being a personal vendetta against him when he is directly questioned about any of it.
Blago has to be clinically insane. Egomania and an ability to disregard the obvious truth on this scale is a sickness. I think he honestly believes that he has done nothing wrong. Either that, or he is working hard on a basis for a book deal later. When the democrats are throwing their own under the bus, there’s a good chance that they are pruning ‘obviously diseased’ branches off the vine. I say ‘obviously diseased’ because the whole liberal vine is infected with ignorance and arrogance on a lethal scale. Kinda like a tapeworm. Yeah, that’s a good analogy.
On to more lunacy!
Nancy Pelosi is at it again, opening her skeletal maw to spew forth stupidity on a grand scale. Now we are being informed by her highness that government provided contraceptives will stimulate the economy. Uh, well I suppose if we were all prostitutes that might be true. The long and the short of this is that she is trying to cut costs on wards of the state by making less of them. Good plan. While your at it, why don’t we just put all of our seasoned citizens on old rusted out freighters that have no more use in the fleet, run them out in the deep water and sink em! That would mean less Medicaid payments, less Medicare part ‘B’ costs, less stress on the medical industry, less frustration for the younger drivers in florida… the list goes on and on…
This type of idiocy is beyond words. Almost. I actually wonder why Nancy is trying to cut down on her voting base. Poor, stupid, dependedent people vote for democrats. It’s a fact. The more dependent people there are, the better off the democrats are in terms of keeping power in DC. So this seems a little counter intuitive. I suppose that we have to consider the long-term effects of this program. First, just because you hand ‘em out doesn’t mean that they’ll be used. Second, if you give something to the dependent class and get them used to it, then you can use it as a threat in future elections. “If you vote for them, they’ll take away your *insert entitlement here*. Heck, they’ve been doing that for years with the old folks and medicare (Which is probably why the frieghter thing I mentioned is a no-go). None of what they have listed in the stimulus bill will to the first thing to lift the economy. In fact, most of it will damage it further. We’re talking about state and county-level projects that ought not be funded on that level by government, much less by FEDERAL government. Art Programs? Money for schools to teach Native American language classes? How the heck does that help? How about a tax cut, you idiots? Here, check this out:
If congress sends ME the money, then I use it to buy things. If they send me enough money for long enough (or let me keep my own money in the first place) then I am more likely to buy things like cars, televisions, movie tickets, dinner out… you get the picture. All of those things are (guess what) part of the American economy!!!! Giving money to local governments to build their pet projects does little to nothing for anyone but the contractor who gets the job. But then again, he’s being taxed through the floor so that it can be built. What I would LOVE to see is a local county or state government apply for a big chunk of the money (but not disproportionately large) and allocate it for a big fat tax cut to the taxpayers of that municipality. Could you imagine the positive repercussions if, say, the State of Georgia did that? Suddenly, there would be a flash of monetary input for the market and the lending institutions as people pay down debt. Either way, that helps my personal economy. If we all do better, then so will the economy. If the engine requires gas, why don’t they give us all a little gas and let us get the engine started again? Well, that makes a little sense, so I guess that won’t be happening. Perhaps I could get a billion or so in the meantimeto do a study on why my cat is snoring right now. Loudly, in fact. Yeah, a billion should cover it. I mean, some of that has to buy earplugs for me and the dog… and buying earplugs stimulates the economy, right?
The future of Education…
Barack put forth his selection for education secretary today, Mr. Arne Duncan, who has been in charge of (insert suprised facial expression here) Chicago Public Schools for the last seven years. Most of the media about this guy pegs him as a ‘reformer’ who took the bull by the horns in the nations 3rd largest school system. We’ll see. A quick drive through the CPS website reveals a chart of dropout rates that has actually shown some positive progress in the last seven years, although the best rate that could be shown was 42%. Yup, that’s right folks, in Chicago public schools, only 6 out of 10 students actually graduate! I bet the intensely educated masses up there do a good job of electing politicians that will actually promote freedom and liberty and not handouts and welfare…
So now this guy is going to be in charge of the nations education policy… we’ll see how he does. Apparently, he plays basketball (which is some sort of resume enhancement according to the press) and he went to Harvard. He’s on a number of different non-profit boards – none with known terrorists that we know of yet – and has the blessing of our current Secretary of Education. How about this… what does he think about lessening the Federal Government’s Power in deciding the fate of our education system? What is his stance on providing each student with a voucher and letting their parents pick the best school? How about school competition? Surely, the man that went to HARVARD knows a thing or two about the value of having a diploma or degree from a school with a prestigious name and pedigree.
We see that very issue come to life around here with our local high schools. Parents go absolutely catatonic when they hear the words “school redistricting” because their baby might not get to go to Harvard if they don’t attend the right high school. We had such a problem a while back with some of our MIDDLE schools. EVERY school (according to Newsweeks 2008 Top 1300 Highschools in the Nation) that these middle schools feed into is on the list. Walton – 109, Pope – 1118, Lassiter -435, Kell – 1195, Wheeler – 873, Sprayberry – 1178, see the article and list here. Yes folks, these people (who’s children will ALL go to public high schools that rank in the top 5% of the NATION) are bitching about which middle school their children will go to because some are ‘better’ than others.
All of this serves to illustrate my point. If schools are dependent upon the performance of their students for their well-being and success, they will either get better or get gone. Some kids may not get into the school that they want, but where is it written that we should always get what we want, much less the first time out of the box? Challenge in a person’s life can bring about great things. Our second ‘First Lady’ Abigail Adams had something to say about that:
“It is not in the still calm of live, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”
- Abigail Adams to her son John Quincy Adams
Let these children strive for greatness, challenge their minds, reward excellence and let the lazy fall to their place in society.
Just as an afterthought: Anyone want to put up all the schools in Conservative areas of the county against the Liberal areas for basic academic performance? Just think, Cobb County Georgia versus say… Chicago. That ought to be fun. I can’t imagine that the schools around here have 42 dropouts between them, much less 42%. Hmmm…