Obama pays off Teachers Unions by gutting No Child Left Behind
The Obama administration shouldn’t insult our intelligence by insisting the gutting No Child Left Behind was done for any other reason than relieving the pressure School Administrations in underperforming states were under. Teacher Unions have been screaming from the rooftops since before the law was signed, because it would shine a bright light on the horrific performance of teachers in many cases. Many States didn’t like the law because there were teeth to the law, and the States didn’t want to have to make the truly hard decisions the law would force them to make. Despite the fact that the Federal Government has no business in education at all, the Federal Government is involved; sending our tax dollars to states that have zero real accountability and whom pass students along from grade to grade in a giant conveyor system. Students who graduate to eventually go onto their careers in the fast food industry.
Back will be the days where we have absolutely no measurable means of performance. States and Teachers Unions will blather about their systems that instill excellence in education, all along knowing they’re simply collecting paychecks and dooming most of the youth they see to a life of under achievement.
For years, I disseminated the hypotheses of the IPCC, and I feel duped
So says Fritz Vahrenholt, a noted Green Movement firebrand in Germany.
For years, I disseminated the hypotheses of the IPCC, and I feel duped. Renewable energy is near and dear to me, and I’ve been fighting for its expansion for more than 30 years. My concern is that if citizens discover that the people who warn of a climate disaster are only telling half the truth, they will no longer be prepared to pay higher electricity costs for wind and solar (energy). Then the conversion of our energy supply will lack the necessary acceptance.
Not apparent from the quote I chose to highlight above, but readily apparent if you take the time to read the interview; Mr. Vahrenholt is a newly sceptic true believer that is willing to shuck the politics of the Climate Science movement and speak to the truth. He’s come to understand the fundamental dishonesty of the Climate Change/Global Warming herd and has learned what so many of the rest of us have known for some time. It’s always invigorating to witness the emergence of a mind no longer obscured by the clouds.
Please tell me Democrats are truly not this stupid?
I know its a rhetorical questions, but come on? Really?
“The power to decide whether or not to use contraception lies with a woman, not her boss,” Sen. Gillibrand said.
“It’s time to tell those Republicans mind you’re own business,” Sen. Lautenberg said.
Please tell me Democrats know that women actually do have the right to purchase their own health insurance now. Please tell me Democrats understand the difference between forcing religious institutions to directly or indirectly provide elements of healthcare that run counter to to their religious tenets; and someone employed by said institution going out and purchasing her own insurance. Please tell me Americans are not stupid enough to fall for this.
Beyond that there is an entire layer of irony here too. First, an entire political party that champions “Separation of Church and State” using the State to intrude in a religious affair; and secondly the Catholic church that supported Obamacare now complaining because it was impacted in a way unforeseen. Dance with the devil….
President Obama to Pick a Fight with Academia?
Though I like the policy initiative, I don’t actually see this going very far and I question whether President Obama’s heart is really in this fight. So often we hear President Obama speak on issues for no other reason than for the political points, and I see this as yet another example of it. To believe otherwise would be to believe President Obama would stand up and fight against some of his own most ardent supporters. And to fight the society of academia within which he grew up. For a man who voted “present” all his life, I don’t see it happening. Its one thing to believe in a socialist construct (universal healthcare) and to fight tooth and nail for it when it matters and with those who support you, and quite another to pick a fight against some of those very same supporters. President Obama has never struck me as that kind of man.
Washington Post to now vet the President?
Excuse me for guffawing Washington Post, but the horses are already out of the barn. Vetting the President in the run up to his second term doesn’t eradicate or even lessen the harm President Obama has done to this country. And you, along with the majority of the other liberal media, are to blame for it. Please save us the self-aggrandizement regarding how you’re going to perform the very function now that you should have performed in 2007 and 2008.
Doomsday clock charade
Anyone who grew up in the 1970′s or 1980′s should be familiar with the Doomsday Clock. But for those who are younger, the Doomsday Clock was (and remains) a figurative representation of humanities closeness to annihilation. It was a means for Nuclear scientists to discuss their fears with the world and it became a political tool with which to goad the worlds Super Powers and allies to step back from the brink. With the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s the Doomsday clock’s significance had been largely marginalized, and society today has all but forgotten what it was to live under the threat of nuclear winter. It’s amazing what a few short years can do to the psyche of a culture, but in all honesty, the world is just as threatened by the likes of North Korea, Pakistan, and quite possibly Iran in the near term possessing nuclear weapons.
In any event, at some point in recent past the organization responsible for the Atomic Clock decided marginalization was for the dogs and they climbed aboard the “Climate Change” bandwagon. The Atomic Clock was always a bit of a political stunt, yet it wasn’t tied to a specific mindset or political ideology. That simply isn’t the case with “Climate Change”, and so whatever relevance remained for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is now completely gone with the political theater unleashed upon the world yesterday. Not one single study or model has to this day been able to accurately predict climate. In fact even the most ardent supporters of “Climate Change” hysteria begrudgingly admit they can’t explain why the dire consequences they’ve trumpeted for years have not been realized. And now the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, founded on the threat of Nuclear annihilation, is alerting us that humanity’s destruction is now closer because we simpletons will not accept the word of our betters.
Some people just don’t realize when their time in the sun has passed.
President Obama is responsible for OWS violence
President Obama has made it clear he stands with the OWS movement and believes in the “principles” they espouse. Despite, of course, that the collective movement has released a dizzying array of “demands” which any sane person would look at and ignore for the utter tripe those demands are. However, President Obama stands behind the movement. As do a number of prominent Democrats, unions, and liberal social organizations. President Obama has gone so far as to turn his Saturday morning speeches, and other public statements into platforms to offer additional support. So President Obama, don’t be true to form now by backing away from the violence your children are committing. Own it.
Of course the OWS movement has been committing various minor crimes all over the country since early on, but has witnessed more periodic serious crimes at various locations during the past few weeks. And the last few days in Oakland, California has been nothing short of atrocious. Those riots are what the Democrat party stands for. Those riots are what President Obama espouses. Those children are the spoiled, whiney liberals that want the productive part of the country to work hard so they can sit back and continue to collect the hand outs government has given to them all their lives. Own it Mr. President.
I never again want to hear a single word uttered from the left, or from the left’s main stream media lackeys about the Tea Party. Never was there a single act of violence at any of the Tea Party events, nor did any Tea Party group ever demand the government forcibly take anything from anyone else to give to them. Nor did any Tea Party group ever demand the government practice class warfare. I am so disgusted with the media, liberals, and President Obama in particular.
What is fair?
President Obama has a habit of throwing around the words “fair” and “Justice” but never defines what either means. And on Saturday he was at it again, latching onto a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that indicated the incomes of the wealthiest Americans increased by 275% from 1979 to 2007, while the lowest income bracket only increased by 18% during the same period. President Obama, true to form, is taking the populist approach attempting to gain leverage over Republicans in the budget and debt discussions.
So much of this “debate” centers around “equality”. The left makes the point that the wealthy getting wealthier to the extent they are while everyone else is getting wealthier to a much lesser extent or not at all is unfair; that there needs to be a more even distribution of the “country’s wealth”. As if there were such a thing. The “country” does not have wealth, individuals do and in a capitalist system where individuals have freedom to pursue achievement, there will be – by definition – unequal wealth distribution. The “country” takes wealth from individuals in the form of taxes to carry out the specified functions directed by the Constitution. Read more…
Liberal ignorance
I have a friend that happens to be a liberal, and so it’s not terribly surprising that the OCCUPYWALLSTREET movement would come up. As so happens recently he’s tried gently chiding me about the aims and goals of the movement. Of course, being conservative, I’ve refuted his chiding by pointing out the ridiculousness of the movement. Not only have I pointed out the ridiculous nature of the varied demands of the movement, but also the crimes committed by protesters across the country, and the general ignorance of the movement’s political philosophy to begin with. I also compared the actions of the movement against those of the Tea Party rallies over the last year which never resulted in a single law being broken, or property damage. What a comparison it is too. Read more…
Surprise? Government Employees in DC average over $100k
This does not surprise me in the least. I do a lot of consulting work and work alongside quite a few government employees on a daily basis, which is part of the reason I was as incredulous at the remarks of Senator Reid yesterday as I was. I see the utterly wasteful spending and total lack of concern for the taxpayer every day and its sickening. I’ve yet to meet a government employee that is one because of a sense of civic virtue despite over 20 years running shoulders with them. Rather, the draw of government positions is the long-term stability, benefits, and pay. Which isn’t to say that you can’t make more money in the civilian world (you can), but no where in the civilian world will you find the job security that is experienced in government service. Civilians might walk around their offices, gathering at the water cooler and comment about concerns of layoffs and quarterly performance. Government employees simply don’t have to.
Case in point a memo has been circulating among certain government employees this week advertising a round of voluntary early retirement. Proving my point and proving just how cynical Americans have a right to be, the talk among government employees I’ve heard all week is speculation concerning financial incentives to take that early retirement. A lot of those I talked to would take early retirement with incentives but were suddenly not interested at all today when an email was circulated that no incentives were involved. Not one single person I talked to today was interested. Why would they be? They all know that they can’t truly be fired like any other American not lucky enough to be a government employee. Unlike regular Americans government employees simply get moved around. In fact in 24 years I’ve never met or so much as heard of anyone that did in fact ever get “down sized”. Billets might have been reduced through attrition or through reorganization but the government employees who did not in fact want to take advantage of early retirement provisions have the right to move to another position somewhere else. They might not have liked what was offered to them, but isn’t that the case with everyone?
Incidentally the average private sector salary is $50,000. The average government salary is $75,000. It’s good to be king, isn’t it?
This is the reason we have a debt problem
Well, other than the obvious that government spends more than it receives. Statements such as Senator Reids are precisely the reason we have a debt problem. Sentor Reid is most assuredly a moron, but Democrats in general need to pull their heads out from whichever dark nether region they currently occupy and understand that government jobs do not PRODUCE. Government jobs CONSUME. Private sector jobs PRODUCE. Government taxation reduces the amount of wealth in the private sector, which causes the private sector to slow down or halt hiring at best, and causes the private sector to reduce the number of jobs at worst. So when I see statements by Democrats like Sentor Reid such as:
It’s very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it’s the public-sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about.
It makes me want to scream at TVs, punch stuffed animals and generally mis-treat Democrats. Government jobs are the safest jobs in the United States today. And they get paid extraorinarily well. It also so happens that Government employees are the single largest body of UNIONIZED employees in the United States. Have no doubt about it, but that is the only reason why Democrats are concerned about government employees. However, at least you can see without any doubt that Senator Reid and the Democrats care very little for you, Mr. and Mrs. private sector worker.
Light of day shone on #OWS
I had been wondering where all of the recent information concerning #OCCUPYWALLSTREET organization had been coming from. Now we know thanks to Andrew Breitbart and others who worked with him to accumulate THIS. Infiltration of the OCCUPY movement enabled the intrepid citizen journalists to accumulate a large repository of emails that show the true nature of the movement. It’s every bit as insidious as believed. As had been said from the very beginning, the movement is a collection of leftists including anarchists, anti-capitalists, communists/marxists, labor union and Democrat party personnel. The emails detail in some detail the plans of the movement, which in short are to “destabalize” the country. This quote from an Oct 12th email summarizes the groups strategy:
We’re in this for the long haul. There are no “solutions” that can be presented quickly to make us go away. And so there will be moments where our presence is no longer an uncomfortable and unknown variable, but rather is normalized and integrated. It’s in those moments that we have to push the envelop [sic], pry open the space of possibility even farther. We go as far as we can to destabalize [sic], but maintain momentum. And when that’s the new “normal” then we go farther. That’s how change happens, how we shift the terrain and the terms of the game.
- Email in “Occupy” archive, “Re: Can OWS be turned into a Democratic Party Movement?”; Wednesday, October 12, 2011
We have not yet seen how dangerous these people are, or the ends to which they are willing to go.
Read more…
Where is this age’s Ronald Reagan?
I remember the first thought I had when I learned that Ronald Reagan had been elected President of the United States. It was November 1980 and I am shamed to admit that I hadn’t yet learned to think for myself. I mournfully recall thinking “oh great, now we’re going go to go to war”. You see, like so many other young impressionable minds, I’d been brainwashed into thinking that Ronald Reagan was nothing more than a intellectually inferior, war-mongering, cowboy. I bought everything the nightly news channels and our country’s largest newspapers said about the President. It took several years before I came to realize that I didn’t actually believe those things the media said about President Reagan, and that instead I had a deep, abiding respect for him. By President Reagan’s second administration I had completely reevaluated my beliefs and had come to consider myself a Republican. President Reagan was a master communicator and it was through his words that I learned what I truly felt in my heart was that America was great and that the principles upon which America was founded were principles I deeply believed in.
Through President Reagan the GOP was transformed into the party of ideas; of vision; of world leadership. Sadly, today the Republican party has forgotten the lessons the Great Communicator taught us. It’s been little more than 20 years since President Reagan left office, yet we find ourselves more in need of President Reagan’s presence now than ever. Our country stands upon a precipice, a deep chasm into which we have begun to tip and from which depth there is likely no return. As we did then, today we need a charismatic leader who believes in those founding principles and can express those principles to a wavering people who seem hell bent upon transforming a unique country into yet another European nation. Read more…
Finally the costs of Michelle Obama’s Africa trip are known
Serial vacationer Michelle Obama cost tax payers more than $424k on her last major vacation in June according to information recently released. Though the White House isists that figure is high, they refuse to indicate what they believe the cost of the trip to have been due to privacy and security concerns. Whatever the cost actually was — higher or lower — that figure was for the travel alone and doesn’t include the costs associated with the personnel who travelled with her and any costs incurred by the foriegn government to accomodate the first family. Normally I’m not one to begrudge the first family their vacations, yet we’re still in the midst of an extremely sensitive economic cirumstance. Its shameful that Mrs. Obama would incur expenses anywhere close to a Million dollars for a vacation when families here in the United States are struggling to put food on the table for their families. Let us not forgot that every dollar Mrs. Obama and her daughters caused to be spent was a dollar taken from someone through taxes. Clearly Mrs. Obama needs to become a better steward of the public’s money.
