We’re Number…ahhh “Whatever!”

The numbers are out for those school districts that have met the new requirements for the No Child Left Behind “Annual Yearly Performance Standards.”

So far I have yet to find a San Diego County school district that HAS met the standards!

Escondido Union High School District:

Poway Unified

Fallbrook Union High

San Diego Unified

Similarly: Oceanside, San Marcos, RSF, Coronado, Vista, etc. etc. etc.

Each have the notation:

“This district has not met all requirements for 2010 Adequate Yearly Progress as determined by the California Department of Education.”

But we do stand first in the nation in teacher pay!

Reflect For a Moment

Reflect for a moment, in your mind’s eye upon your memories of firemen and burning homes, and no, this is not about firemen and burning homes at all.

But stay with me for a moment. Reflect.

In your minds eye of all of the TV coverage you have seen, what percentage of all of those house fires do you suppose the homeowner recovered after the fire, the smoke damage and the water damage from fire hoses?

Exactly.

The California governor’s race, like many political races these days is a study in frustration.

But I well remember my first foray into the political scene – with the Poway Unified School District Board of Education. No, I didn’t run – I just attended a hundred or so meetings and was a thorn in their side.

After several years of pure frustration, I decided to work for Prop. 13. I concluded that the board members were incompetent, and that the only solution was to cut off their education funds. For years I had witnessed the board giving any supplicant anything they asked for, and they simply raised the property tax rates accordingly.

For some time, that worked. In fact it is the only thing that EVER works!

Whatever reforms are possible, and whatever reforms will work in the current political climate, will be done by ANY candidate because they HAVE NO MONEY!

While I fully support both the Libertarian Party (of which I have been a member since its inception), because it is a long-time movement for lower taxes and spending, and additionally I support the concept of a TEA Party (Taxed Enough Already), the success in the future will not be the result of any of their efforts, but rather because there ain’t no money!

I’m certain that Libertarians and the TEA Party will take credit for the future results, but they both came to the (city)(state)(nation) rescue after the house was already burned to the ground!

There is no more home to burn! It’s gone. The Libertarians and the TEA party are, like firemen, to be commended for showing up, but, again like firemen, there is only a hulk left and most of that cannot be salvaged.

It’s not that firemen, Libertarians and the TEA party are useless – at the very least they provide a visual reminder of the need to be careful in the future, but they have done little to impact the actual current situation.

And, memories are short. The profligate Poway Board that was brought up so short by Prop. 13, is back to their old ways. The homeowners who live next to the previously burned out home, probably are storing gasoline in their garage. The pressure for public art will rise again, and welfare money will again be spent on cruise ships, and there will always be people clamoring for control of your eating, smoking or reproductive habits.

Sanity is a short-term thing in humans. The cycle continues.

 

Getting Information, Saving Time

If you spend a lot of time on the computer each day, subscribing to the www.Politico.com alerts will give you a “heads up” on breaking news.

Political junkies start their day with Mike Allen’s Political Playbook on Politico. (And, yes, there’s an app for that!). In addition to political scoops, Allen prints a veritable electronic newspaper in snippet format.

While not quite as “breaking” – www.SignonSanDiego.com (a portal to the San Diego Union) also has an alert service for local news, and the www.voiceofsandiego.com has a morning update that is really good. I also subscribe to the Washington Post, which sends out an afternoon update that is excellent.

If you ever want to participate in a blog with knowledgeable people on specific issues, you could do a LOT worse than joining a discussions on www.voiceofsandiego.com. If there is a better local, on-line newspaper than VOSD, I have not heard of it.

 

 

Filed Under: Little Known and Completely Useless Information

While there is little interest in such things in America, except as an engineering project, the Europeans are into automobile speed as no others.

Consequently, they have now built the Worlds Fastest Production Automobile – about 40 of them will go on sale for about $2.8 million apiece, and they are capable of 268 MPH.

The cars are built by the new Bugatti factory (a name recognized by all auto enthusiasts), and are rated at 1,200 HP each with four supercharges on an 8 liter engine. An automobile driver from the Wall Street Journal drove one in Spain at about 225 MPH…

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536210036839120.html?KEYWORDS=bugatti

You Can Be Pretty and Smart

Before I quote her, I just want to make a fully sexist remark and admit that she is a FOX – but Dana Perino (White House News Director under President Bush) made a salient point on FOX news Sunday when she remarked that the rush to slow down on foreclosures by banks, under the threat of state government action, raises the question of fairness.

She remarked that people who are “underwater’ in their loans (about a quarter of the nation) but continue to pay their mortgage because they assumed the risk when they took the loan, are going to feel awful foolish wheb people who cannot or will not pay their loans are permitted to remain in their homes next door, payment free.

She is absolutely correct.

Political Silly Season

We have apparently entered the Silly Season of politics.

Some Republican candidate is being pilloried for being a Nazi re-creator – that is someone who with a bunch of other nuts dresses up in Nazi uniforms.

Now there are a lot of weird people in this world, and if you don’t believe that just look at those who recreate Civil War battles, or Medieval Jousting  Or, have you seen the people who attend Star Wars conventions? How about ComiCon?

Personally, I don’t see the furor over the guy who gets his photo taken with a bunch of other nuts dressed in Nazi uniforms to be any different than the actor who dresses in Nazi uniforms in movies – that does not make him a Nazi and more than anyone who plays pars in movies or plays.

If there is more to this that I simply don’t comprehend I guess someone will inform me, but in the meanwhile I will hold to the theory that Sean Connery doesn’t really have a license to kill.