As we move through the dog days of August and are mentally numbed by the media smorgasbord of coverage including the “Swift Vets”, mutilated-via-plastic-surgery child molesters, professional-athlete-date-rapists, dead-or-missing pregnant women, and underwhelming presidential debates on domestic issues, I’ve got some suggestions of my own for the domestic front. They are all based on the premiss that the less the imperial Federal Government has to do with domestic issues, the better off we all will be. Many if not most Americans have lost sight of this concept. (And by the way, will someone show me where in the US Constitution it says anything about government “creating jobs” or stopping the “exporting of jobs overseas?”)
I’m not given to using cliché’s, since they’re so cliché—but here is one of my favorites, paraphrased:
“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”
To a textbook liberal, this might seem like an alien concept to spring from the mouth and mind of a mean old, Caucasian, conservative, dyed in the wool, libertarian.
Well, I’ve got news for you: all mean old white guys don’t necessarily enjoy the idea of poor people being poor or total strangers and dang foreigners freezing or starving to death. It’s just that most of us mean old, conservative, libertarian white guys believe that it should not be the government’s job to take our hard earned money and spend it on whomever it is politically expedient to spend it on. Particularly since the government has this strange way of generating ridiculous amounts of overhead into which the majority of the funds end up being diverted, instead of being spent on the intended, so-called “charitable” purpose.
Since we earned it, it makes sense that we might have some pretty good ideas about what to do with the portion of our income that we don’t need for our own basic clothing, food and shelter. Things like paying for our kid’s education, our elderly parents expenses, and our own retirement easily come to mind. And yes, there are times when there are extra funds available and we Americans are pretty good at coming up with ways to help each other without good ole’ Uncle Sam stepping in to lend a (heavy) helping hand.
Of course there are the churches and traditional charities like the Red Cross and The United Way, but I must confess that I cast a wary eye in the direction of any so-called “charitable” group paying six and seven figures for individual executive salaries. The United Way is notorious for making heavy-handed demands on employers during fund drives and for their exclusion of other charitable groups when their funding drives are in progress. There are, however, a number of non-traditional organizations that operate on a “grass-roots” level and that seek to meet the needs of individuals that might ordinarily fall through the cracks in our society.
For instance, I recently visited the website of a group http://www.madhousers.org/ called the “Mad Housers” that I first had some involvement with years ago when I was attending Georgia Tech. An acquaintance of mine named Mike Conner, an architecture student, was a founding member of this organization, which provides free basic shelter for homeless people in the metro Atlanta area.
The group goes out and finds homeless people (what Neal Boortz calls an urban outdoorsman) living under bridges and in home made huts in Kudzoo patches. The Mad Housers provide a small (8’x10’), clean, lockable, prefabricated structure with a safe, simple home-built stove for heating and cooking. The structures are prefabricated in “panels” and hauled to the site and erected with volunteer labor.
The individuals that the Mad Housers serve are not inclined to utilize traditional homeless shelters for a variety of reasons, but they need shelter regardless. There is a neutral, sometimes somewhat strained relationship with local governments but they usually tend to look the other way. The City of Atlanta destroyed dozens of Mad Houser structures in 1996 in an effort to “clean up” the city before the summer Olympics. Government at work…
I helped build a couple of shelters with them 25 years ago and I am pleased to learn that they are still in business. They are truly a legitimate non-profit enterprise and they could use any help you wish to give—financial or otherwise.
Another group that I just learned about and intend to look into is Modest Needs: http://www.modestneeds.org/ . This group was started by a guy that decided to dedicate 10% of his monthly income to meeting the unexpected, emergency needs of individuals and families. It has since grown to a larger organization that has helped thousands of people. I love the concept and will write more when I’ve had time to look into their work.
The charitable group that I have spent the most time and energy with is Habitat for Humanity http://www.habitat.org/. Everyone thinks that Jimmy Carter started the organization, but in fact it was started in south Georgia and he just provided his name, reputation, a lot of sweat equity, and international recognition that only a former US president can provide. Mr. Jimmy and I differ on just about every political and social issue, but Habitat is a great organization. I have helped build half-dozen houses with them and attended their project manager’s school in Cobb County, Georgia. I am getting involved here in Glynn County soon and can personally testify as to the good work that they do.
I'm sure that there are dozens of other similarly deserving groups out there that could use your time and funding, so fold up that crappy fish wrapper you call a newspaper, turn off "Entertainment Tonight, " and get out there and make a difference...then you can justify voting for smaller government this November.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Teachers outlaw red ink--would my accountant please do the same?
Now I think that I have truly seen everything when it comes to modern changes and so called “improvements” in America’s government educational system. I just read (no pun intended) an article in the Boston Globe newspaper discussing the increasing trend in the teaching profession of moving away from the use of red ink in favor of the color purple for grading student’s work:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2004/08/23/harshness_of_red_
marks_has_students_seeing_purple/.
"I do not use red," said Robin Slipakoff, who teaches second and third grades at Mirror Lake Elementary School in Plantation, Fla. "Red has a negative connotation, and we want to promote self-confidence. I like purple. I use purple a lot."
Say what, lady? You can’t really be serious, can you? Give me a break, would you please?
Why can’t the politicians and the teachers unions get over the idea of promoting self-confidence/self-esteem by diluting and dumbing down the public (government) school curriculums (or is it curriculii?) How hard can it be for an average student to earn an “A” in a class in which the informational value consists of nothing but total crappolla?
Low standards aside, now they are worrying about the color of the ink used to grade papers? When I was in school, I personally didn’t care if you smeared my test paper with doggie dung. If my answers are wrong, they are wrong and my education would have suffered if I didn’t get on the ball and learn what ever it is that you are trying to teach me. That is, of course, unless you were teaching something like today’s modern, revisionist, hate-America-first history lessons or some tree-hugging, enviro-eco-fascist global warming theories of doom and destruction, in which case I’d just cruise on through class with my eyes closed, take my B that you would inevitably deliver for A quality work because of my outspoken religious and political beliefs, and then get on to my calculus and physics classes—thank you very much.
Forget about worrying about ink color, I have some suggestions for promoting self-confidence in the classroom (and in life in general.) I believe that it’s a tried and true method. It certainly worked well for me for about 24 odd years over which I spread my 16 years worth of educational experience. Try this, Mr./Mrs./other teacher or professor:
How about providing a classroom environment that actually promotes learning, a curriculum that has relevant course content, and then reward superior performance with superior grades—to hell with student’s self-esteem and what the parents of the students earning C’s, D’s, and F’s think.
Mark the student’s mistakes with the entire rainbow of colored pencils and pens if you must—just mark the errors each and every time. And by the way, it would greatly help if you actually developed some skills to successfully teach your students something while they are in your class, not just baby-sit them through 55 minutes of mind-numbing, politically correct prattle.
And another thing, when I was in grade school, the grade distribution actually looked something like a “bell curve.” Of course, your high falluting, modern teaching education probably omitted this concept when you were pursuing your teaching degree in the local mish-mash vo-tech/teachers’ college. For your reference, the “bell curve” grade distribution meant that a grade of C was average, and roughly half of the grades fell above and half fell below the grade of C. None of this all A’s and B’s or pass/fail stuff. Georgia’s Hope Scholarship qualifications be damned, either you learned it or you didn’t. After graduation from high school, on the night shift drive-through register at McDonalds, its too late to find out about and correct a lifetime of artificially enhanced self-esteem.” Would you like an order of fries with that concept?
Oh, I know that the trend is, after graduation, that you can always go to the polls and vote for a political candidate that will assist you in evening out the playing field when it comes to life’s rewards and benefits. You can always cast your vote and attempt to legislate things like your “right” to health care, your “right” to a high minimum wage, your “right” to retirement benefits, your “right” to unlimited paid family leave, and your “right” to a vacation at Disney every 12 months, and even your “right” to not be insulted and your "right" to have high self-esteem throughout your entire life.
If you can just get that new Escalade with the DVD and spinner rims legislated, then you can sit back and live your life on cruise control for the next 30 or so years, spending your generous spare time reading People Magazine and watching Entertainment Tonight to get your news and information on current events. I hear that they have lots of pretty pictures for you to look at and of course they wouldn’t dare attempt to confuse you with too many facts about complex issues. Got to protect that fragile self-esteem, don't we?
Red enough? (Pun intended.)
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2004/08/23/harshness_of_red_
marks_has_students_seeing_purple/.
"I do not use red," said Robin Slipakoff, who teaches second and third grades at Mirror Lake Elementary School in Plantation, Fla. "Red has a negative connotation, and we want to promote self-confidence. I like purple. I use purple a lot."
Say what, lady? You can’t really be serious, can you? Give me a break, would you please?
Why can’t the politicians and the teachers unions get over the idea of promoting self-confidence/self-esteem by diluting and dumbing down the public (government) school curriculums (or is it curriculii?) How hard can it be for an average student to earn an “A” in a class in which the informational value consists of nothing but total crappolla?
Low standards aside, now they are worrying about the color of the ink used to grade papers? When I was in school, I personally didn’t care if you smeared my test paper with doggie dung. If my answers are wrong, they are wrong and my education would have suffered if I didn’t get on the ball and learn what ever it is that you are trying to teach me. That is, of course, unless you were teaching something like today’s modern, revisionist, hate-America-first history lessons or some tree-hugging, enviro-eco-fascist global warming theories of doom and destruction, in which case I’d just cruise on through class with my eyes closed, take my B that you would inevitably deliver for A quality work because of my outspoken religious and political beliefs, and then get on to my calculus and physics classes—thank you very much.
Forget about worrying about ink color, I have some suggestions for promoting self-confidence in the classroom (and in life in general.) I believe that it’s a tried and true method. It certainly worked well for me for about 24 odd years over which I spread my 16 years worth of educational experience. Try this, Mr./Mrs./other teacher or professor:
How about providing a classroom environment that actually promotes learning, a curriculum that has relevant course content, and then reward superior performance with superior grades—to hell with student’s self-esteem and what the parents of the students earning C’s, D’s, and F’s think.
Mark the student’s mistakes with the entire rainbow of colored pencils and pens if you must—just mark the errors each and every time. And by the way, it would greatly help if you actually developed some skills to successfully teach your students something while they are in your class, not just baby-sit them through 55 minutes of mind-numbing, politically correct prattle.
And another thing, when I was in grade school, the grade distribution actually looked something like a “bell curve.” Of course, your high falluting, modern teaching education probably omitted this concept when you were pursuing your teaching degree in the local mish-mash vo-tech/teachers’ college. For your reference, the “bell curve” grade distribution meant that a grade of C was average, and roughly half of the grades fell above and half fell below the grade of C. None of this all A’s and B’s or pass/fail stuff. Georgia’s Hope Scholarship qualifications be damned, either you learned it or you didn’t. After graduation from high school, on the night shift drive-through register at McDonalds, its too late to find out about and correct a lifetime of artificially enhanced self-esteem.” Would you like an order of fries with that concept?
Oh, I know that the trend is, after graduation, that you can always go to the polls and vote for a political candidate that will assist you in evening out the playing field when it comes to life’s rewards and benefits. You can always cast your vote and attempt to legislate things like your “right” to health care, your “right” to a high minimum wage, your “right” to retirement benefits, your “right” to unlimited paid family leave, and your “right” to a vacation at Disney every 12 months, and even your “right” to not be insulted and your "right" to have high self-esteem throughout your entire life.
If you can just get that new Escalade with the DVD and spinner rims legislated, then you can sit back and live your life on cruise control for the next 30 or so years, spending your generous spare time reading People Magazine and watching Entertainment Tonight to get your news and information on current events. I hear that they have lots of pretty pictures for you to look at and of course they wouldn’t dare attempt to confuse you with too many facts about complex issues. Got to protect that fragile self-esteem, don't we?
Red enough? (Pun intended.)
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Random Thoughts and Cogitations
Missing persons
I just don’t understand the motivation behind the national media and general public’s absolute insane obsession with a select few missing persons stories that monopolize the headlines each year. I guess my problem is with the apparent propensity of the press to single out a few very young and/or photogenic individuals—usually female (and most recently pregnant)--for attention and publication. At the same time, in the same and other regions of the country, a multitude of other less popular, less photogenic, or socially un-acceptable persons’ plight go un-noticed and un-published.
Once a given missing-person story hits the newspapers and the airwaves, the press micro-reports each and every nuance of speculation and gory detail and, when and if the facts move the story toward the suspicion of murder or other foul play, the developing epic saga is then locked on the front pages of newspapers and in the lead position on the cable TV pseudo-news-talk-shows for what seems an eternity. We are finally relieved of the burden of concern and obligatory angst when the body is found, a suspect is captured, and the jury delivers a verdict-- sometimes many years later.
Here’s a reality check for you. Each year there are nearly 900,000 persons reported missing and entered into the FBI database. Over two-thirds of these individuals are minor children. While many of these cases are often successfully resolved in a matter of days as runaways or as mistakes, as of March 2003, there were nearly 100,000 active missing person cases: http://fomlo.homestead.com/statistics.html . I expect that more recent data will show similar results when it is made available.
It is my assertion that the excessive attention and the resulting sensationalism of these high profile cases act as a sort of media produced “junk food for the mind,” serving to divert our attention away from many much more important issues in life. Why let your mind be distracted and dulled with these overtly sensationalistic media soap operas?
Don’t get me wrong here, I have a great deal of sympathy for each and every one of the victims and their families, but enough is enough on any given circumstance. If you honestly want to worry about missing persons, why not volunteer to help in a case in your local area that is not receiving a high degree of media attention? Actually load up in your SUV with your hiking boots and bandanna and personally, physically help in the search effort. Or, how about supporting a local missing person’s search effort in your area with the provision of logistical services like food and water delivery or by helping man (or woman) a phone bank for information and tips?
What ever you do, don’t just sit on your rear end, vegetating in front of the TV and pontificating about the sentence the perpetrator should receive.
Voters Rights (and Wrongs)
I can’t count the number of spirited (and often mind numbing) conversations I have had recently with ill informed, venom spewing, so-called US citizens who completely disagree with me on everything from minor social issues to major topics affecting our national defense.
After reaching an impasse philosophically, it is frightening how many of these mental giants resort to name calling and insults—unable to offer a rational defense of their position on any given issue. They've heard and they feel, but they don’t think.
The final absurdity usually occurs when my adversary ends the conversation by admitting that they are either not registered to vote or have not voted in years. Say what?
At the risk of canceling my vote and those of my intellectual superiors throughout this great nation, how about registering to vote? Then spend your time reading and otherwise educating yourself in preparation for the local and national elections to be held this November. Lacey Peterson and Lori Hacking would probably have appreciated your efforts.
Dead Celebrities
Blaa, Blaa, Blaa - more later...
Olympic Sized Ego’s and Overpaid Professional Athletes
What’s more important—talent or teamwork? By the looks of the makeup and performance of the current US men’s basketball team, talent is not the answer.
Not that anyone ever asked me, but I have never cottoned much to the idea of allowing professional athletes to form the core of an Olympic team. I know, I know, I know, the Soviet Union used to stack their deck with the equivalent of professional hockey players and professional basketball players in the 1970’s and 1980’s while we were still playing great college seniors from Duke and Georgetown. But, when the rules changed (in 1992, I think,) I somehow knew in the back of my mind that this remedy would most likely accelerate the downfall of the US Olympic basketball effort. I think that the performance to date of this year’s men’s team represents the fruition of my somewhat audacious prediction.
This current bunch of ego-maniacs which we call “The Dream Team” is, in my opinion, more like a “Nightmare on Main Street,” and it is currently well on its way to embarrassing Dr. Naismith (basketball’s inventor,) the team members individually, and the monstrosity of a professional sports program we lovingly (not!) refer to as the National Basketball Association.
There are twelve NBA players that make up the Men’s US Olympic Basketball team. A little research on the Web reveals that the 2003-2004 salary of the top three players equals $39,676,125.00. Players whose salaries could be identified include:
Allen Iverson $13,500,000.00*
Stephon Marbury $13,500,000.00*
Tim Duncan $12,676,125.00*
Lamar Odom $3,557,585.00**
Shawn Marion $2,265,375.00**
Amare Stoudemire $1,767,120.00**
Richard Jefferson $1,482,840.00**
Total $48,749,045.00
*2003-2004 season
**2002-2003 season
source: http://www.insidehoops.com/nbasalaries.shtml
I’d hazard to guess that the 2002-2003 salaries of four players has increased and that the salary of the other five players not included (Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, LeBron James, Emeka Okafor, Dwyane Wade) has to equal at least another $7M to $10M, especially since LeBron James signed a three year, $12.96M contract straight out of high school last season.
Fifty Five Million Dollars, earned among twelve guys, who can’t even sweep all of their games in a so called amateur event we still laughingly call the Olympics. I guess my point is, if money isn't enough of a motivation for these professionals to put out a quality performance each week during the regular NBA season (attendance is declining in many US cities,) why would a $500 gold metal make any difference?
When will we learn? Why don’t we change? Just wondering…
I just don’t understand the motivation behind the national media and general public’s absolute insane obsession with a select few missing persons stories that monopolize the headlines each year. I guess my problem is with the apparent propensity of the press to single out a few very young and/or photogenic individuals—usually female (and most recently pregnant)--for attention and publication. At the same time, in the same and other regions of the country, a multitude of other less popular, less photogenic, or socially un-acceptable persons’ plight go un-noticed and un-published.
Once a given missing-person story hits the newspapers and the airwaves, the press micro-reports each and every nuance of speculation and gory detail and, when and if the facts move the story toward the suspicion of murder or other foul play, the developing epic saga is then locked on the front pages of newspapers and in the lead position on the cable TV pseudo-news-talk-shows for what seems an eternity. We are finally relieved of the burden of concern and obligatory angst when the body is found, a suspect is captured, and the jury delivers a verdict-- sometimes many years later.
Here’s a reality check for you. Each year there are nearly 900,000 persons reported missing and entered into the FBI database. Over two-thirds of these individuals are minor children. While many of these cases are often successfully resolved in a matter of days as runaways or as mistakes, as of March 2003, there were nearly 100,000 active missing person cases: http://fomlo.homestead.com/statistics.html . I expect that more recent data will show similar results when it is made available.
It is my assertion that the excessive attention and the resulting sensationalism of these high profile cases act as a sort of media produced “junk food for the mind,” serving to divert our attention away from many much more important issues in life. Why let your mind be distracted and dulled with these overtly sensationalistic media soap operas?
Don’t get me wrong here, I have a great deal of sympathy for each and every one of the victims and their families, but enough is enough on any given circumstance. If you honestly want to worry about missing persons, why not volunteer to help in a case in your local area that is not receiving a high degree of media attention? Actually load up in your SUV with your hiking boots and bandanna and personally, physically help in the search effort. Or, how about supporting a local missing person’s search effort in your area with the provision of logistical services like food and water delivery or by helping man (or woman) a phone bank for information and tips?
What ever you do, don’t just sit on your rear end, vegetating in front of the TV and pontificating about the sentence the perpetrator should receive.
Voters Rights (and Wrongs)
I can’t count the number of spirited (and often mind numbing) conversations I have had recently with ill informed, venom spewing, so-called US citizens who completely disagree with me on everything from minor social issues to major topics affecting our national defense.
After reaching an impasse philosophically, it is frightening how many of these mental giants resort to name calling and insults—unable to offer a rational defense of their position on any given issue. They've heard and they feel, but they don’t think.
The final absurdity usually occurs when my adversary ends the conversation by admitting that they are either not registered to vote or have not voted in years. Say what?
At the risk of canceling my vote and those of my intellectual superiors throughout this great nation, how about registering to vote? Then spend your time reading and otherwise educating yourself in preparation for the local and national elections to be held this November. Lacey Peterson and Lori Hacking would probably have appreciated your efforts.
Dead Celebrities
Blaa, Blaa, Blaa - more later...
Olympic Sized Ego’s and Overpaid Professional Athletes
What’s more important—talent or teamwork? By the looks of the makeup and performance of the current US men’s basketball team, talent is not the answer.
Not that anyone ever asked me, but I have never cottoned much to the idea of allowing professional athletes to form the core of an Olympic team. I know, I know, I know, the Soviet Union used to stack their deck with the equivalent of professional hockey players and professional basketball players in the 1970’s and 1980’s while we were still playing great college seniors from Duke and Georgetown. But, when the rules changed (in 1992, I think,) I somehow knew in the back of my mind that this remedy would most likely accelerate the downfall of the US Olympic basketball effort. I think that the performance to date of this year’s men’s team represents the fruition of my somewhat audacious prediction.
This current bunch of ego-maniacs which we call “The Dream Team” is, in my opinion, more like a “Nightmare on Main Street,” and it is currently well on its way to embarrassing Dr. Naismith (basketball’s inventor,) the team members individually, and the monstrosity of a professional sports program we lovingly (not!) refer to as the National Basketball Association.
There are twelve NBA players that make up the Men’s US Olympic Basketball team. A little research on the Web reveals that the 2003-2004 salary of the top three players equals $39,676,125.00. Players whose salaries could be identified include:
Allen Iverson $13,500,000.00*
Stephon Marbury $13,500,000.00*
Tim Duncan $12,676,125.00*
Lamar Odom $3,557,585.00**
Shawn Marion $2,265,375.00**
Amare Stoudemire $1,767,120.00**
Richard Jefferson $1,482,840.00**
Total $48,749,045.00
*2003-2004 season
**2002-2003 season
source: http://www.insidehoops.com/nbasalaries.shtml
I’d hazard to guess that the 2002-2003 salaries of four players has increased and that the salary of the other five players not included (Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, LeBron James, Emeka Okafor, Dwyane Wade) has to equal at least another $7M to $10M, especially since LeBron James signed a three year, $12.96M contract straight out of high school last season.
Fifty Five Million Dollars, earned among twelve guys, who can’t even sweep all of their games in a so called amateur event we still laughingly call the Olympics. I guess my point is, if money isn't enough of a motivation for these professionals to put out a quality performance each week during the regular NBA season (attendance is declining in many US cities,) why would a $500 gold metal make any difference?
When will we learn? Why don’t we change? Just wondering…
