Saturday, February 19, 2011
Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Feb. 19 & 20, 2011
I wonder how many Americans under... oh... let's say 30... know this song.
I mean, it's not like this was a Top 40 Hit back in 1962 when I was first brought onto the world stage... (*CHUCKLE*)... so to speak, but to my contemporaries reading this, just think about all the old... very old... and very, very, very old songs you were exposed to via school, old records, our parents' radio stations, old movies, cartoons (particularly Looney Tunes)... and so on and so forth.
Kids have so much "data" at their fingertips today... but I fear their worlds are much smaller... the context of their lives far narrower.
Anyway...
(*SHRUG*)
I'd be interested to hear whether others agree with me or not.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=41867
What vital interest of a United States staring at bankruptcy would be imperiled if we got out of the way, stopped fighting these countries' wars and paying these countries' bills and let these people determine their own future for good or ill?
* THE ABOVE IS THE CLOSING PARAGRAPH FROM PAT BUCHANAN'S LATEST COLUMN. I RESPECTFULLY SUGGEST ALL OF YOU FOLLOW THE LINK PROVIDED UP ABOVE AND READ THE COLUMN FOR YOURSELVES.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704546704576151082208100302.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
* THE LINK TO THIS WEEKEND'S PAUL GIGOT INTERVIEW - THE INTERVIEWEE... CONGRESSMAN PAUL RYAN (R-WI)
* I URGE FOLKS TO TAKE A FEW MOMENTS TO READ THE INTERVIEW. (NOTE: GIGOT TAKES BARKERISTIC SWIPES AT GINGRICH AND ROMNEY!)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704900004576152172777557748.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
This week President Obama was roundly criticized, even by many of his allies, for submitting a federal budget that actually increases our already crushing deficit.
But that didn't stop him Thursday from jumping into Wisconsin's titanic budget battle.
* ON THE WRONG SIDE...!!! (*MUMBLING TO MYSELF*)
He accused the new Republican governor, Scott Walker, of launching an "assault" on unions with his emergency legislation aimed at cutting the state budget.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* FOLKS... YOU'VE SEEN THE NEWS COVERAGE... YOU'VE SEEN THE SIGNS... THE COMPARISONS TO HITLER... THE OVER THE TOP RHETORIC... (*STILL SHAKING MY HEAD*)... YET NOT A WORD OF CONDEMNATION FROM OBAMA - AT LEAST NONE I'VE HEARD.
[Governor] Walker's proposals are hardly revolutionary. Facing a $137 million budget deficit, he has decided to try to avoid laying off 5,500 state workers by proposing that they contribute 5.8% of their income towards their pensions and 12.6% towards health insurance. That's roughly the national average for public pension payments, and it is less than half the national average of what government workers contribute to health care.
Walker also wants to limit the power of public-employee unions to negotiate contracts and work rules - something that 24 states already limit or ban.
* AGAIN... PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS... NOT PRIVATE UNIONS.
The governor's move is in reaction to a 2009 law implemented by the then-Democratic legislature that expanded public unions' collective-bargaining rights and lifted existing limits on teacher raises.
* AHH...! NOW HAVE YOU HEARD THAT BEFORE...?!?!
[S]o many teachers called in sick on Friday that school districts in Milwaukee, Madison and Janesville had to close.
[W]hen it became obvious that the governor had the votes to pass it, Democratic State Sen. Bob Jauch and his 13 Democratic colleagues got on a bus and fled the state to deprive Republicans of a sufficient quorum to conduct any legislative business.
[Governor] Walker would require that public-employee unions be recertified annually by a majority vote of all their members, not merely by a majority of those that choose to cast ballots. In addition, he would end the government's practice of automatically deducting union dues from employee paychecks.
* BOTH PROPOSALS SOUND QUITE REASONABLE AND INDEED DEMOCRATIC IN THE NON-PARTISAN SENSE OF THE WORLD. IF CERTAIN UNION MEMBERS
"Ending dues deductions breaks the political cycle in which government collects dues, gives them to the unions, who then use the dues to back their favorite candidates and also lobby for bigger government and more pay and benefits," [according to] Labor historian Fred Siegel.
[Governor] Walker's argument - that public workers shouldn't be living high off the hog at the expense of taxpayers - is being made in other states facing budget crises.
* FOLKS... GOVERNOR WALKER AND HIS REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES ARE FIGHTING FOR COMMON SENSE AND FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY; THEIR OPPONENTS - INCLUDING PRESIDENT OBAMA - ARE FIGHTING FOR...
(*SHRUG*)
...THE OPPOSITE.
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/02/rep_david_wus_staff_confronted.html
* AND WE'RE FIND OUT ABOUT THIS NOW...???
* FOLKS... WHEN IT COMES TO EITHER NUTS OR THIEVES... SHOULD CONGRESS AS A WHOLE BE EACH MEMBER'S KEEPER?
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/02/17/house-strikes-out-in-disciplining-security-spending/
In voting to prop up funding for COPS and fire grants - two discredited programs that fail to deliver any bang for our security bucks - the House calls in to question its credibility...
By a vote of 228–203, $300 million in funding was restored for the Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, doubling the size of the program. Heritage has studied the COPS program to death and found that rather than enhancing public safety, it has actually done the opposite. After an exorbitant amount of money, “COPS failed to reach its goal of adding 100,000 additional police officers despite spending almost $11 billion from FY 1995 to FY 2003. Despite a sizeable monetary investment, thorough and independent evaluations of the COPS program have found that it failed to achieve its primary goal of placing an additional 100,000 officers on the streets.”
Furthermore, COPS grants were frequently abused or misspent. The whole concept of COPS has proven to be completely wrongheaded. Large federal grants distributed for use at the discretion of state and local police departments discourage accountability and efficiency. They severely undermine the incentives for state and local governments to use taxpayer money efficiently by disconnecting the receipt and use of that money from political accountability for using it wisely and effectively.
Second, the House increased Homeland Security firefighter grants by over $500 million to a total of over $800 million. This program has also been proven demonstrably wasteful. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis evaluated the effectiveness of fire grants by matching fire grant award data to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, an incident-based database of fire-related emergencies reported by fire departments. The Heritage evaluation compared fire departments that received grants to fire departments that did not receive grants. In addition, the evaluation compared the impact of the grants before and after grant-funded fire departments received federal assistance. The results: Fire grants were ineffective at reducing fire casualties, failing to reduce deaths and injuries for either firefighters or civilians. Without receiving fire grants, comparison fire departments were just as successful at preventing fire casualties as grant-funded fire departments.
The bottom line is that the facts and figure prove that both programs are a waste of money - yet the House pumped money into them anyway. Small coincidence that these programs bring the bacon back home to communities all across the country?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/technology/19bizbriefs-INTELPLANSNE_BRF.html?ref=technology
* GOOD NEWS...!!!
The Intel Corporation announced plans on Friday to build a $5 billion microprocessor plant in Arizona and hire 4,000 employees in the United States this year.
http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/new_york_school_testing_con_rTZb2QqrcKue5gjQ2UtktM
* READ THIS - AND TRY NOT TO PUKE.
In a stunningly short time, from 2006 to 2009, New York schools celebrated what was presented as a tremendous turnaround. The number of city students passing statewide math tests in the third through eighth grades surged from 58% to 82%. At the same time, the Big Apple graduation rate rose from 49% to an all-time high of 63% last year.
The figures were miraculous.
They were also, for the most part, a lie.
While the scores have risen, real achievement has lagged. Behind the curtain, an erosion of standards has led to a generation of New Yorkers who have been handed high school diplomas but can’t handle the rigors of college or careers.
A new state report finds just 23% of city grads leave high school ready to succeed in college or the work world.
About 75% who enrolled at CUNY community colleges flunked the entrance exam, and must take one or more remedial classes in math, reading and writing.
How did the state testing system, meant to closely gauge how well students and their schools were doing, create such a grand illusion? Insiders and critics interviewed by The Post largely blame Richard Mills, the state’s education commissioner for 14 years until he resigned in 2009.
“We were clearly misrepresenting student achievement,” said Betty Rosa, a former Bronx superintendent on the state Board of Regents, which oversees education statewide. “We were not giving the public the truth.”
A state report released this month delivered a new blow. It found that most kids who earn less than 75 on the state Regents English test or 80 on the math exam...must take remedial classes before starting college.
(65 is passing for both [but] that 65 score is misleading as well. It’s based on an adjustable scale - and the state has whittled down the points needed to pass.)
* BELIEVE IT OR NOT, FOLKS, A "65" = 34.5% CORRECT. YEP... YOU READ THAT RIGHT; IN REAL TERMS... 34.5 IS A PASSING GRADE.
“When Johnny or Jenny comes home with a 65 or 70, their parents might think they’ve mastered about two-thirds of the material. In fact, it’s slightly more than a third,” said Steve Koss, a retired city math teacher who has railed against the bloated test scores. “Sadly, most parents don’t understand how the scoring works. If they knew the truth, many would be outraged at what amounts to a fraud perpetrated against them by state and local education officials.”
* OH... AND GET THIS...
This month, the state launched a shorter English Regents exam, cutting it from two days to one, six hours to three, and four essays to one. Instead of three other essays, kids have to write two “well-developed paragraphs.”
* FOLKS... I KEEP ON HIGHLIGHTING STUFF LIKE THIS... WHAT'S IT GONNA TAKE?
Post a Comment