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2006 Archives
June 19, 2006:
Teachers:
It seems teachers are struggling, at least around here. ABC channel
12 local news tells us, in one case, there were 500 applicants
for 5 teaching positions. Does anyone except me remember the
situation a year ago? At that time, we were told there would
be a national shortfall of tens of thousands of teachers in the
near future. We were facing a educational tragedy of the first
order. There would not be near enough teachers to staff our schools.
Do tell? I wonder what happened? Duh!
Iraq:
They have filled out the cabinet and all the pundits say there
is reason to hope. I really hope the new government is successful,
even of it makes George Bush look good. I'd like our army to
get out of there clean and leave a viable situation behind. Maybe
by then it will be too late for George to invade Iran.
Road Building:
The road that fronts our property is being paved. It is taking
an inordinate amount of time and I'm not convinced the people
doing it know what they are doing. There was a perfectly good
roadbed there consisting of abut three feet of compacted sand
topped by two feet of compacted gravel. I think they could have
just graded it and paved it. They did not. The dug out the roadbed
and are replacing it with another roadbed of exactly the same
kinds of materials.
We may wonder why the Japanese have exceeded us in productivity
and quality. We need not wonder. We need only observe. Padding
a job to make the work last longer is a long term dead end. We
will all lose in the end. On top of that, it occurs to me, we
are still building roads the same way the Romans did. We build
them a bit faster and wider, but they don't last as long. Some
of those old Roman roads are still there. It seems ours have
to be rebuilt every few years.
About Writing:
Since I escaped from gainful employment many years ago, writing
is what I have been doing. I have written 9 books and hundreds
of essays. I have learned one thing for sure. In writing, if
you leave room for misunderstanding, some people will misunderstand
and others will choose to misunderstand. I believe that is a
problem impossible to avoid for us imperfect souls. I will just
learn to live with it.
Stopping the War:
The most inexpensive and most effective way to stop the war in
the Middle East is to make oil valueless. When oil becomes the
least valuable commodity on the market, the Muslim world will
slide backward into the primitive tribal superstitious pit it
crawled out of. Without Western money and technology, the Muslim
philosophy will be revealed as even more primitive than sun worship.
We can make oil valueless by finding a real viable source of
cheap energy.
A truly viable source of energy must be as portable and easy
to deliver as oil. The very dangerous nuclear fission does not
answer to that call. It cannot be delivered easily to automobiles
and it has deadly byproducts. We have not yet learned to deal
with these byproducts. Hiding them in deep caves does not answer
even though our government pretends it does. They are still there
and the pile is growing. This pile has a half-life measured in
centuries, not decades or years. From the human perspective,
it will always be there, festering.
Articulation:
I know very little of other school districts, but I have seen
a lot of Flint's problems on our local channel 12 news. Even
when they think they are reporting a positive thing they reveal
a deeper problem. The latest example was some kids in a school
who were doing their own news program. The instructor had the
kids reading items as though they were news people or meteorologists.
This was shown to us with obvious pride by the real news people.
They did not seem to notice what I saw immediately. These kids
were not understandable because they could not articulate properly.
Their words slurred into each other so that they was a jumble
of syllables instead of coherent sentences.
How is that kids get into highschool and still have not learned
how to speak? Communication is the first thing kids should be
taught. The reality is, communication is not taught to kids at
all. They are taught a thing called English, but they are not
taught how to enunciate. In some schools, debate and public speaking
are electives, but they are not required in any public school
I know of. Here is a fact they don't seem to get. Most, employers
will not hire people who cannot speak coherently. It's bad business.
Communication is essential to all cooperative efforts including
work situations.
Quick Executions:
The Supreme Court has ruled that people can argue against lethal
injection as a cruel and unusual punishment. Okay with me! The
Court also ruled truly important evidence can be used in court.
This means the people on death row will be able to use DNA evidence
that was not available in the original trial. A DA said that's
too bad because it will delay quick executions. Say what? Is
guilt relevant? Apparently not to some DA's. The theory seems
to be, suppress any contrary evidence then convict them and kill
them regardless of truth. With a lot of convictions, I suppose
a DA could run for governor.
The Food Police:
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). They are
self appointed protectors of the public good. They are Goddamned
do-gooders. They are food fanatics drunk on their own stupidity.
Much like that loony-bird Nader, these idiots are pretending
to represent me and you. These A-holes have filed a suit against
Kentucky Fried Chicken because their food has too much trans-fat.
They want to force them to stop using trans-fats in their cooking.
Say what? Who's business is that? This is a totally frivolous
suit.
They claim trans-fat kills 30,000 people a year. Oh yeah?
Who's butt did they pull that number out of? Where is the scientific
study? Where is the supporting evidence? It's a big newspeak
lie. There is no evidence. Where will this insanity end? Will
we next tell the French Chef he cannot use butter and cream in
his sauces? Will we tell the baker he cannot put whipped cream
in is cream puffs? Will we stop Bob Evans from serving sausage
and bacon? Will we tell him he cannot cook his wheat cakes in
lard? Get a life you CSPI nut-cases!
These fools should be forced to eat totally bland food for
the rest of their lives. They should be put on the BRAT diet
(Mashed ripe bananas, cooked white rice with nothing on it, unsweetened
applesauce, and dry toast). They should be allowed nothing else
to eat, ever. In the meantime, I wish to make my own choices
about food. If I want to eat trans-fat and have clogged arteries
and a huge butt it is my business. If I want to eat a whole large
pepperoni pizza by myself and wash it down with a gallon of beer,
that's my business. What I eat is nobody's business but my own.
Get out of my life you idiot food police! Minerva, please protect
me from do-gooders.
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