In the span of my adult life we've gone from walking on the moon and winning the cold war to a divided, pessimistic, discouraged country that at least to me exhibits all the characteristics of a once-mighty empire sliding inexorably into the twilight of its existence. We've taken a giant leap, all right, but it's a giant leap backwards.
Wiser people than me have asked how this came to be. If there's an answer out there, I'd love to hear it.While not directly addressing that question, OldNFO may just have provided the answer, courtesy of a third grade teacher.
The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade this year.
The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided that we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have.That, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with this country. We now live in a nation overrun by people who think they are entitled to free ice cream.
We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot. The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia's mother.
The day for their speeches arrived. Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded and he sat down. Olivia's speech was concise. She said, "If you vote for me, I will give you ice cream." And then she sat down. The class went wild. “Yes! Yes! We want ice cream." She surely would say more. She did not have to.
A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it? She didn't know. The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream.
Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide.
Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and 52 percent of the people reacted like nine year olds. They want ice cream. The other 48 percent know they're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess.
We at NBC strive to earn our public's trust by being the most accurate and reliable news source. Since our regrettable error in reporting on "the death of astronaut Neil Young", we now publish a correction on the controversial career of one of America's greatest hall-of-famers, astronaut Lance Armstrong, who passed away over the weekend at age 82.
It seems that BATFE’s William McMahon, who, as the agency's Assistant Deputy Director for Field Operations approved its catastrophic and deadly “Fast and Furious” operation, is being allowed to receive his six-figure federal paycheck for nearly half a year, while working full-time as investment bank J. P. Morgan’s executive director for global security and investments in the Philippines."Office of Professional Responsibility." What a joke. That tells you everything you need to know about the ATF and the obama administration right there.
As the Washington Post reports, "McMahon was one of five ATF officials recently singled out in a congressional report on the botched gun operation. The report alleged that McMahon knew that no safeguards were in place to prevent a large number of guns from getting into Mexico, but he made no effort to stop them." Fox News says "The [double-dipping, two-paycheck] arrangement allows McMahon to retire [from the BATFE] in December with a full government pension."
Congressional investigators into the "Fast and Furious" debacle, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), have asked the BATFE to explain McMahon’s situation, but the agency has said only that McMahon is a full-time employee in the agency, in its Office of Professional Responsibility, no less.
A letter sent by Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa to BATFE says "Given McMahon's outsized role in the Fast and Furious scandal, the decision to approve an extended annual leave arrangement in order to attain pension eligibility and facilitate full-time, outside employment while still collecting a full-time salary at ATF raises a host of questions about both the propriety of the arrangement and the judgment of ATF management."Oh my achin' back. This guy should have been not only fired, but indicted as well. He led an ill-conceived, mismanaged, and illegal operation that left an unknown number of people dead, including at least one U.S. LEO. And his reward? He not only gets to keep his job, he's given a sweetheart deal that allows him to go on vacation for six months while working full time for another employer in order to get his pension.
Meanwhile, the long-awaited report of the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General, on "Fast and Furious," has apparently been completed, and the DOJ has one month to respond to the report’s findings. At that time, the report should be made available to the public.Don't hold your breath. The DOJ investigating the DOJ? Can you say "whitewash?"
Thirty years ago, the cover-up of a two-bit burglary of a hotel room was enough to force a U.S. president to resign. In the current administration, though, sins of an incomparably greater magnitude have been rewarded time and again. Reason enough to remember that the presidential election is only 73 days away. And counting.The big difference between Nixon and obama is that the press was out to get Nixon, while instead they are doing their best to cover up obama's sins.
President Obama turned down a chance to have Timothy Cardinal Dolan deliver a prayer at the Democratic National Convention after Dolan told Democrats he would be “grateful” to deliver a blessing in Charlotte.Cardinal Dolan is generally regarded as the top Catholic official in the country. He will deliver a prime-time benediction at the Republican convention, and wanted to let the dems know that it was not a partisan act on his part: "... he would be just as happy and grateful to accept an invitation from the Democrats as he would to have received one from the Republicans.”
The Democratic National Committee is raising a number of eyebrows after announcing that it will be hosting Islamic “Jumah” prayers for two hours on the Friday of its convention, soon after denying a Catholic cardinal’s request to say a prayer at the same event.
Walking on the moon is now something that people used to do, in the distant past, like macramé, decoupage and the Hustle. (A moonwalk is just another dance step now, and an old one at that.) Before very long, there will be no one left alive who's walked any ground but the Earth's, and eventually the adventure that was Apollo 11 will fade out of personal human memory. There will just be the pictures, then, as we saw them in the summer of '69, ghostly and blurry, colorless and incomprehensible, an infant's glimpse of a new world.The United States has abandoned the notion of manned space flight and, in an ironic twist of fate, ceded that domain to the Russians.
The Wall Street Journal notes that the International Space Station now depends solely on Russia, the historic rival to the U.S. in the space race. The U.S. and European Space Agency will depend on Russia’s Soyuz for a lift. In other words, Russia has a monopoly on manned space flight.Adding injury to insult, that presidential decision meant the loss of jobs and specialized space expertise.
The head of the NASA has said Barack Obama told him to make "reaching out to the Muslim world" one of the space agency's top priorities.What has happened to this country? In the span of my adult life we've gone from walking on the moon and winning the cold war to a divided, pessimistic, discouraged country that at least to me exhibits all the characteristics of a once-mighty empire sliding inexorably into the twilight of its existence. We've taken a giant leap, all right, but it's a giant leap backwards.
The Left’s answer to the deficit: raise taxes to protect spending. The Left’s answer to the weak economy: raise taxes to enable new spending. The Left’s answer to the looming sovereign-debt crisis: raise taxes to pay off old spending. For the Left, every deficit is a revenue-side problem, not a spending-side problem, and the solution to every economic problem is more spending, necessitating more taxes. The problem with that way of looking at things is called Detroit, which looks to be running out of money in about one week. Detroit is what liberalism’s end-game looks like.There are many reasons for Detroit's downfall, not the least of which is the overwhelming influence of unions on local government and businesses.
One lesson to learn from Detroit is that investing unions with coercive powers does not ensure future private-sector employment or the preservation of private-sector wages, despite liberal fairy tales to the contrary...Here's a perfect example.
Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer.An independent report says cut jobs by 80%. The union says it needs even more people. Which one do you think is more believable?
Yet even with a department so bloated that it has a horseshoer and no horses, the local union president said it is "not possible" to eliminate positions.
Union rules have turned the department into a government jobs program, some critics say.
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) has a large debt, rising water prices and inefficient services — using almost twice the number of employees per gallon as other cities like Chicago.
A recent independent report about the DWSD recommends that the city trim more than 80 percent of the department’s workforce. The consultant who wrote the report found 257 job descriptions, including a horseshoer. Capitol Confidential sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the department for the salary, benefits and job description of the horseshoer position.
In response to the report, John Riehl, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207, which represents many of the DWSD employees, told the Detroit Free Press that the department needs more workers.
"Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer."BTW, the city pays $29,245 in salary and about $27,000 in benefits for the horseshoer position. That's around $57K per year for shoeing non-existent horses.
A DOJ policy instituted May 31, 2012, directed the agency to "affirmatively recruit" attorneys and staff who are dwarfs or who have “psychiatric disabilities” or “severe intellectual disabilities.”"Affirmatively recruit" means that the targeted groups are given preference in hiring, and in fact can sidestep the normal hiring process.
This DOJ policy does not merely involve prohibitions against discrimination, but rather the documents reveal deliberate recruitment efforts to hire as attorneys and staff for the Department of Justice people suffering from psychiatric disorders and intellectual disabilities. Moreover, applicants can “self-identify” their disability..."Self-identify." That means even though I stand 6'1" tall, I can fill out "Standard Form 256, Self Identification Disability" and declare myself a dwarf, and no one can say boo about it.
Those with “targeted disabilities” may be hired through a “non-competitive” appointment. That means they don’t have to endure the regular civil service competition among applicants, but can be plucked from the stack of resumes and hired immediately instead.I'm all for equal opportunity, but hiring folks before a position is made public, or waiving requirements that other applicants must meet, is not equal opportunity. It's reverse discrimination.
According to the documents, those with these “targeted disabilities” may be hired “before the position is advertised” and even “before the position’s closing date.” Moreover, lawyers with psychiatric disabilities and “severe intellectual” disabilities receive a waiver from the requirement that a new DOJ employee have practiced law for one year before being hired.
Just as easy money, lowered lending standards, and political hype came together to vastly overinflate the housing sector, a combination of easy money (federal grants and loans available for nearly every student), lowered academic standards (colleges that readily accept students with pathetically weak basic skills) and political hype (the notion that getting a degree will guarantee a huge boost in earnings) have produced a vastly overinflated higher-education system.Word.
... Whereas college degrees used to be regarded as sure-fire investments, the labor market has become glutted with people who have been to college but can’t find “good” jobs.
Did you know that 22 percent of customer-sales representatives and 16 percent of bartenders have bachelor’s degrees?
Furthermore, at many schools, academic standards have fallen to the point where students can coast through without learning anything worthwhile. As University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds recently wrote, “The higher education bubble isn’t bursting because of a shortage of money. It is bursting because of a shortage of value.”
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Some students didn't take well to Steven Maranville’s teaching style at Utah Valley University. They complained that in the professor’s “capstone” business course, he asked them questions in class even when they didn't raise their hands. They also didn't like it when he made them work in teams.Boy, are they in for a shock when they get a real job. Most professional positions have bosses that ask questions, and require some form of teamwork.
Those complaints against him led the university denying him tenure – a decision amounting to firing, according to a lawsuit Maranville filed against the university this month.Ah yes. Short attention spans coupled with the desire for immediate gratification are typical of today's students. And don't get me started on the damage resulting from our test-based 'educational' system.
Maranville and his attorney did not return phone calls, but the allegations in the lawsuit raises questions that have been raised and debated about the value of student evaluations and opinions, how negative evaluations play into the career trajectory of affected professors and whether students today will accept teaching approaches such as the Socratic method.
Maranville followed the Socratic teaching style and described his way of teaching as "engaged learning," according to court documents. Those records describe teaching approaches designed to go beyond lectures. He would ask questions to stimulate discussion. He divided his students into teams and gave them assignments outside class.
Supporters of the method see it as "a process by which you try to make the best logical argument and you focus on process as much as content” ... (but) not that many faculty members use it these days. "The reason for its unpopularity sometimes is because we are in a test-based education system. Students can be increasingly impatient where the answer is not clear and when the professor is not giving it to them immediately."
The advantage of (the Socratic method) of teaching is that students learn how to think on their feet, said Patricia King, a professor of education at the University of Michigan.Students today remind me off Maynard G. Krebbs (from the old TV show Dobie Gillis).
“But it requires hard intellectual work,” she said.
"Whenever the word "work" is mentioned, even in passing, he yelps "Work?!" and jumps with fear or even faints."
In our particular case, we receive funding from the state under a complex formula that in part is based on the university's student retention and graduation rate. In this era of tight pursestrings and budget cuts we are under tremendous pressure to improve those rates. That has resulted in increased emphasis on student evaluations as part of our overall evaluations, with subsequent consequences for raises, promotion, tenure, and even continued employment.
In Maranville’s case, students did not see the value of his approach, the court records suggest. "Some students were quite vocal in their demands that he change his teaching style, which style had already been observed and approved by his peer faculty and administrative superiors,” according to the lawsuit. Students did not want to work in teams and did not want Maranville to ask questions. “They wanted him to lecture.”
The department chair – Scott Hammond, who is named in the lawsuit – apparently agreed with how Maranville taught his courses and called him a “master teacher,” according to court documents. Hammond visited his class, and so did an associate dean.
But a few months later, during the spring semester, Maranville received a letter from university president saying that his classroom behavior was not suited to his being granted tenure.
John Curtis, director of research and public policy for the American Association of University Professors, who was not specifically speaking about the Maranville case, said such situations might reflect a growing trend to give weight to student evaluations when it comes to promoting professors and even in their retention.
"These kind of situations might become a real threat to academic freedom. We have heard from professors who are afraid to be tough with their students because of the possibility of negative evaluations leading to them being let go," Curtis said.
As a result, he said, it might be tempting for a faculty member to make classes easy just to garner positive evaluations.
the tail is wagging the dog; orEither way, I'm not sure how much more of this I can take...
the inmates are running the asylum.
At an off-the-record lunch at the White House in June 2012, President Obama explained that he had to win re-election or Mitt Romney would get credit for an inevitable recovery during what would be his second term.Give 'em credit. They're following that game plan to the letter.
“I’m not going to let him win … so that he can take all the credit when the economy turns around,” Obama said...
... Obama’s advisers knew by 2011 that a positive campaign based on the improving economy “just wasn’t in the cards” and planned early to hit Mitt Romney with a negative campaign.
“You can’t run on the economy ... You can only tell people that you’ve saved them from something worse.”
America’s most distinguished leaders get their hair cut at the Senate barbershop, but taxpayers are the ones really getting clipped."an infusion." That's congresscritter speak for "bailout." It's particularly disturbing given what the barbershop charges.
The barbershop ran almost $300,000 in the red last year but received an infusion from Senate coffers that is keeping it in business...
A shampoo, cut and blow dry is $27 and highlights are $105, according to the barbershop’s website. A trim costs $20...For comparison purposes, I go to Larry's Barbershop in beautiful downtown Boerne, Texas. Larry charges me $10 for a haircut and beard trim. Granted, I don't have a full head of hair, but what I lack on top I make up for with my beard. so it all evens out. Toss in a $2 tip and we're both happy.
Former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., blames the money woes on the stylists, who are federal employees. He contends they’re overpaid compared to their private-sector counterparts.Barbers are federal employees, and union members? Barbers!?!? YGTBSM. The barbers who cut my hair when I went through Basic Training at Ft. Polk damn sure weren't federal employees and union members. They were moonlighting sheep-shearers.
“They are using union labor, and so their benefits and wages are higher than those of many jobs,” Fitzgerald said.$70, 000+ for cutting hair?!? Plus a 401(k), health care, and paid vacation? I'm in the wrong line of work
To support his argument, Fitzgerald contrasts the salaries and benefits of the Senate’s stylists to what is offered by Capitol Barber, three blocks away.
Capitol’s four barbers and stylists made $22,000 to $30,000 last year with no benefits, manager Lynn Dang said. At the Senate barbershop, formally called Senate Hair Care Services, the top four barbers and stylists made more than twice that — $54,761; $70,349; $73,658; and $81,641 — plus they have a generous 401(k) plan, health care and paid vacation. In all, the government contributed $230,000 in benefits for the barbershop, the Senate Appropriations Committee said.
(Senate sergeant at arms Terrance Gainer) acknowledged the barbershop’s staff members “are well paid, and it gives them a leg up on their nongovernment counterparts.”No shit.
After struggling to stabilize the barbershop’s finances for the five years he’s been on the job, Gainer has decided privatization is the only answer.That's true not only of the barbershop, but of many other government-provided 'services.'
",,, it’s costing the government money, and that includes taxpayers like you and me...”
The hoo-hah over Ann Romney’s part-ownership of Olympic dressage horse Rafalca will backfire on the liberal critics. She began riding to help with her multiple sclerosis — admirable, gutsy.The best response I've seen comes from Roger the real King of France.
So the Romneys are selfish for keeping a horse?Words straight from the horse's mouth...
And employing a groom with a family to support.
And paying for feed that’s sold by someone with a family to support
And transported in trucks by someone with a family to support
And manufactured in a factory by people with families to support
And made from stuff that’s grown by farmers with families to support.
And having a barn built by construction workers with families to support with materials trucked by drivers with families to support
And made with materials from factories with workers with families to support.
Sounds to me like Mitt Romney's one horse has already done more to put Americans to work than that horse’s ass in the White House.
____________ reported that person(s) unknown apparently stole several 1,000's gallons of water from their house over the past month. The theft was discovered when the bill, which is usually the minimum, was received for the last billing cycle and was in the $800 range. The owner is working with (the utility company) and the County Sheriff is investigating. If anyone has any information, particularly of vehicles pulling water trailers, etc., please call it in to the Sheriff's department.So yesterday I drove up there, double-checked the meter reading (it was correct), confirmed that there was no leak, and discovered that the water cut-off valve was in the on position. The only possible conclusion is that someone stole 15,000 gallons of water from us. That's how bad the water situation is down here.
Feral hogs were imported into Texas over 300 years ago. The “Russian Boar” was imported into Texas by ranchers and sportsman in the 1930’s. It is the cross breeding of these two that give us the feral hogs that we have in Texas today. These feral hogs are growing in numbers that are very alarming. Hogs can reproduce twice a year with a litter of 4 to 6. These animals destroy crops, uproot fields, destroy and contaminate watering holes, carry diseases, and kill other animals, such as deer, cattle, goats, quail, turkey and other livestock.They are nasty, dangerous critters. Here's some more info.
When CNN host and Time editor-at-large Fareed Zakaria wrote a new piece called “The Case for Gun Control,” it ended with a bang: “So when people throw up their hands and say we can't do anything about guns, tell them they're being un-American--and unintelligent.”
Here’s something that suggests a lack of intelligence: plagiarism. Cam Edwards at NRANews.com suggested to me that Zakaria seemed to plagiarize a paragraph from an April article in The New Yorker magazine -- with a modicum word-usage changes and interjections (Texas!) in an attempt to paper it over.
It's not the first time Zakaria's been accused of lifting things.
Are these people so stupid that they think no one can do some basic research? Do they take us for complete idiots? (Rhetorical questions - don't bother to answer.)Zakaria's cover story today on Iran contains the following sentence: "In an interview last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the Iranian regime as a 'messianic, apocalyptic cult.'"
In an interview with whom, exactly? Zakaria's wording makes it seem as if the interview was conducted by, oh, Fareed Zakaria, but as best as I can tell, the interview was conducted by yours truly, for The Atlantic. And not, by the way, "last week," but in March.
A few paragraphs later, Zakaria writes, "One of Netanyahu's advisers said of Iran, 'Think Amalek.'" Said it to whom? Again, yours truly, for a New York Times op-ed piece that did, indeed, run last week.
Time has suspended Zakaria, saying in a statement:Of course, if Time, CNN, and Zakaria were really sincere, he would be fired/resign, not just settle for a slap on the wrist.
TIME accepts Fareed's apology, but what he did violates our own standards for our columnists, which is that their work must not only be factual but original; their views must not only be their own but their words as well. As a result, we are suspending Fareed's column for a month, pending further review.
CNN has also suspended Zakaria.
In a statement released to the press, Zakaria has admitted his plagiarism:
Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my Time column this week bear close similarities to paragraphs in Jill Lepore’s essay in the April 23 issue of The New Yorker. They are right. I made a terrible mistake. It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize unreservedly to her, to my editors at Time, and to my readers.
Beverly Hills police say a hearse driver who was found dead with a body in the vehicle died while taking the casket to a funeral.Poor woman. She was just trying to urn a paycheck...
Lt. Lincoln Hoshino says authorities were alerted that a body was slumped over in the driver's seat of a hearse parked near the Beverly Hills Hotel at about 3 p.m. Monday.
Hoshino says the investigation is in its early stages but the woman appears to have died of natural causes, with no weapons or evidence of violence discovered.
... a Vietnamese carrier has taken its entertainment offering to a stratospheric level by serving up a mid-air beauty pageant.
None of the male passengers appeared to be dashing for the emergency exits when a string of women in Hawaiian bikinis trooped through the cabin on the inaugural VietJetAir (VJA) flight from Ho Chi Minh City to the coastal holiday destination of Nha Trang.
Instead they reached for their phones to record the scantily-clad women, who had all been contestants in a local beauty contest, performing a three minute hip-shaking dance in front of them during the night flight last Friday.
However the airline has now been fined after a video showing the unusual high-altitude antics was posted on YouTube and became a hit on social network sites.If the above picture is any indication, there certainly were a lot of happy passengers (most of them male).
The Vietnam Aviation Authority has ordered the airline carrier, which was only launched last year, to pay £600.
Nguyen Trong Thang, chief inspector of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam said he thought the airline made a serious error of judgement in giving the go ahead for the sky high show.
A VietjetAir official offered a diplomatic response.
He said: ‘It was the first flight to a beach town, so we came up with the idea of getting a number of girls in bikinis to dance and make passengers happy...
The Kennedys inherited their wealth and John Kerry married into his wealth, and both are loved.What a sad -- and insightful -- commentary on where we are as a people.
However Mitt Romney, who earned his wealth, is loathed and scorned.
Go figure.
