"the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now."

Same Old Same Old From Lying Rat Bastard Politicians...


You might have in the past seen some ranting and raving here on this Blog about the detrimental effect that the ever increasing bureaucratic liberal influence of the Imperial Federal By-God Government Of The United States Of America has had on public government schools over the past 50 years...haven't you?

Just in case you haven't, let me give you my take on the subject in a nutshell this morning.

Basically...

(considering how to remove the profanity from the upcoming explosion...)

MANY IF NOT MOST GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS TOTALLY SUCK.

THEY HAVE PRETTY MUCH SUCKED FOR A LONG TIME NOW, ALTHOUGH THE LEVEL OF SUCKING HAS MOST DEFINITELY INCREASED SINCE I MANAGED TO ESCAPE GRADUATE MY STUPID REDNECK ASS OUT OF THE PROGRAM IN 1977.

(Taking a big breath...)

Got that?

Understand where I'm coming from this morning?

OK, here's what lit my fuse and got me started on this current rant.

The world has learned that (gasp) the Obama family will be sending their precious little darlins to the Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC once the family and "Grandmama" relocate into their new government housing January 20th.

Obamas Choose Private School For Daughters
10-Year-Old Malia, 7-Year-Old Sasha Will Attend Sidwell Friends School


WASHINGTON (AP) ― President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have chosen Sidwell Friends School for their two daughters, opting for a private institution that another White House child, Chelsea Clinton, attended a decade ago.

"A number of great schools were considered," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama. "In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now."

She said Sidwell can provide the security and privacy that Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, will need as part of the new first family and Sidwell can help with that. She also said that Sasha and Malia had become good friends with Vice President-elect Joe Biden's grandchildren, who go to the school.

Sidwell is a private Quaker school with a campus in northwest Washington for grades 5-12 and another in suburban Bethesda, Md., for kindergarten through fourth grade. Malia is in fifth grade and Sasha is in second grade, suggesting that the girls would attend schools at different locations.

Well isn't that special?

OK, I'm not totally STUPID, and I know that the practicality of sending the Obamarama prodigy to almost any public school is impossible because of security, but then again I have to offer a hearty...

PLUUUUEASSSSAEEEE

I did a little Googling when the media started salivating over the story of the final matriculation destination of the little princesses and found a few disturbing facts...

Things like graduation numbers falling below 50% in cities like Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland.

Georgia's "official" graduation rates appear substantially higher than independent sources can verify...i.e. the states have to resort to lying about and "fudging" their graduation rates in order to keep sucking on the government education funding tit...

According to the Washington Post, Washington DC's schools--you know...in our nation's CAPITOL--are some of the worst and amazingly their administrators are RESISTING efforts to improve.

I lost the link I found earlier to the Web Page, but what amazed me was that the detailed reading and math and performance scores published for every single other school district I checked--including my home town in Dale County, Alabama; my other home town of 27 years in Cobb county, Georgia; our little former island town in Glynn County, Georgia, and our current home town here in Western Knoxville, Tennessee (check Farragut schools if you're wondering) was obviously OMITTED for schools in Washington DC.

They didn't report graduation rates, GMAT and ACT/SAT scores...all they had was the school name and enrollment.

So no, I don't think it's wrong that the president elects kids are going to private schools, but YES...I think it's a travesty that our government keeps on talking and spending endlessly on education and "no child left behind" type programs and still coming up producing a stupid population of VOTERS.

Come to think of it...I...PERSONALLY...BELIEVE THAT IS THEIR ACTUAL INTENTION...to produce a population of ignorant cattle and sheep that will settle for free handouts and vote the way they (the Democrats and other sniveling, booger eating, tree hugging, leftist socialist progressive liberals) want them to vote.

I offer the outcome of the most recent election as my closing statement.

The prosecution rests...your Honor.


(If you are a public school teacher and you do a good job--and I know you are out there--don't start writing me and complaining about my criticism because A) I'm entitled to my opinion and B) I really do understand that there are good schools and school teachers out there, I'm just totally tired of the government stepping in and screwing everything up, taking decisions on curriculum away from the local people, and announcing a new expensive program every four years under the guise of fixing things using tax dollars stolen from property owners like me who never even had any kids to send to the schools I'm paying for in the first place.

If I'm paying the tab, wouldn't it be reasonable to at least ask me what I think, even in light of me not having a kid in the program?

Wouldn't it be reasonable for me to say...here...take my $45, 000 I've paid over the past 23 years in school property taxes on seven houses and pieces of real estate and GIVE it to a kid with some promise and let his parents decide where he/she goes to school just like our politicians can with salaries also paid for with tax dollars?

Just wondering...)

The Silence Of The Lambs

Anyone Else But Me Notice?


During 99.9% of this racially and sexist charged, media driven bullcrap National and local political campaign, I somehow find it strange (no...really I don't because she's so smart...) that we haven't heard much from this woman (who happens to still be Secretary of State until late January.)

Then I realize that just because she holds political office--she's not really a politician.

At least not a so-called CAREER Politician.

What she actually is is a really accomplished woman who not only holds a PHD, is an accomplished concert piano player, a former board member of multiple companies, once had an Exxon Tanker named after her and requested that the ship be renamed when President Bush invited her to take her current position in Washington...

and Miss Rice has had the presence of mind and decorum to keep her mouth shut and her personal opinions to herself except possibly as evidenced in the face of the stupidity of this past election season.

(And what really bugs me is that this Blogger had to dig through fifteen or twenty pages of a Google search to find an appropriate high resolution image of Miss Rice to post here on this blog.)
What a total bunch of stupid partisan idiots I apparently live among here in the digital world..

I REALLY DO HOPE THEY OFFER HER THE JOB AS COMMISSIONER OF THE NFL.

She's said that that's something she'd really like to to one day.

At least then she can finally be in charge of an organization full of thick headed men which are willing to do what she says and and admit it when they don't understand WHY she's asking...

Concrete, Steel, and Buna-N?

Sorry...But I'm Multi-Tasking...


As is now and has been typical for me when I'm working instead of sitting around on some island, beach, or boat, it seems that while everyone else is thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas and eating Turkey and waiting on Santa Clause...somehow I end up getting deluged with requests for my time and everything has to be done at the same time.

You know...before the aforementioned "everyone else" takes off for the aforementioned "holidays."

Thus my lack of words this morning.

I have a couple hundred thousand pounds of concrete waiting on the details about how a couple hundred thousand pounds of steel is going to act under seismic and wind loadings in northern California.

Then there's the research into the high temperature behavior and melting point of a rubber compound called Buna-N used in the seal of a suspect valve in one of my forensic injuneering projects.

I hope you'll understand if I have to stop writing and go play rocket scientist now...

More Things You Won't Hear On The News...

(And The Newspapers Won't Say Anything Either...)


I hate to admit that I've been snooping around the stock markets these days looking for some bargans which are inevitable with today's hysterical low market values.

While doing some research on Utility stocks like natural gas and electric companies(wink...wink...hint...hint...), I came across this Department of Energy chart showing trends in Natural gas pricing:


Anyone but me notice that prices have fallen from nearly $14 per million BTU's July Fourth down to just above $7 per MBTU's this week (about a 50% reduction in cost)?

I bet everyone including me has noticed that OIL prices are down similar amounts, but we don't need the lamestream media to tell us about it because we see it broadcast in bright lights every day while driving up and down the roadway.

That said, it's gas--Natural GAS--that's still the better deal for heating your home and hot water and it beats OIL and OIL PRODUCTS (expecially GASOLINE) by nearly 40% right now.)

But the media didn't take the time our of their liberal partisan, doom and gloom, alternative fuels, "Obamarama gonna save us" days to tell you that bit of good news, probably because President Bush is still in office.

That's OK...I'm still watching and reading and you can say that you heard it here first I guess.

That will be all...for now...

A Pirate Looks At Fifty

I Guess Jimmy Buffet Would Be Proud...


I'm too lazy to Google it to give you the link this morning, but earlier I watched some sniveling European peacenick commenting on the current escalation of the ongoing rash of "Piracy" going on out on the African high seas.

The idiot actually said that there was nothing much which could be done militarily to prevent the ransoming of ships and crews due to concerns about "international law."

SAY WHAT?

I guess what he's saying is that just like the people walking the streets of Washington DC and NY City and San Francisco, the law abiding crew members of these ships are at the whim of savages bearing GUNS because the rules and laws prevent them from having guns of their own.

I call bullshit on that estimation.

If I were on one of these boats I'd want to make sure the equipment list included a couple of 50cal machine guns and a shoulder mounted RPG or two and we would dispatch the wannabe "Pirate" idiots on on to Heaven or Hell or Mecca or where ever to meet their makers before they even thought of climbing a ladder to make their demands.

UPDATE 7:23 AM: here's the link to the video if you're interested...

Universal Healthcare?

I Guess It Depends On What Universe You're Living In...


So now in Britian they're having to choose between paying for expensive drugs for terminally ill patients and providing better care for more people in their Government operated, taxpayer funded medical program...

The NHS, which provides health care to all Britons and is funded by tax revenue, is spending about 100 billion pounds this fiscal year, or more than double what it spent a decade ago, as the cost of treatments increase and the population ages. The higher costs are forcing the NHS to choose between buying expensive drugs for terminal patients and providing more services for a wider number of people.

Just watch the same kind of thing happen here. YOU, like me, might one day be considered too old and/or too sick to warrant saving, and we'll have given the government the power to make that determination and have no available option because they want to put private insurers and fee for service clinics out of business.

Want A Ride?

Get Yourself A Horse


All of this crap going on out there continues to kill me--auto industry "bailouts" and such...

Maybe I slept through a couple of classes in High School or College and missed this concept.

Maybe I'm just selfish or possibly even stupid.

All I know is that I've spent the better part of the past 25 years designing smokestacks and air pollution control crap--but mainly smokestacks and I never saw one single day when anyone ran into my office and offered to pay for a smokestack any taller or shinier that our stupid imperial Federal government of the By-God United States of 'Merica told them it had to be.

For that (selling smokestacks in the first place) I guess I have to admit that I've benefited from government "regulation" or "intervention," but truth be told other than keeping their factories' smoke out of their dinner plates and off their bedsheets--most people buy/build the smallest chimney they can get away with based on what they can afford.

Why should it be any different with automobiles?

I say let the government get the hell out of the business of business and back into the business of constitutional government like the founding fathers had in mind, and your wallet and mine will be a heck of a lot fatter as a result.

(of course if you're a sniveling, tree hugging, booger eating, Oprah/CNN/MSNBC watching, eco-friendly progressive, socialist, liberal spending your time sitting around waiting for your "earned income" credit and you "stimulus" check to arrive in the mail or into your bank account by direct deposit you might beg to differ I guess.)

Is it just ME?

Things I'm Recently Responsible For...

(And I Bet You Don't Know Anyone Else What Did All These Things This Week...)

I Was The Only Local Veteran On Veteran's Day - This year found me to be the only Veteran in my workplace...which is pretty strange to a guy that grew up outside an Army base and yet only served in the US Navy Reserve for two years as a volunteer during Carter's so called "Presidency."

I did my time concurrent with my tenure in the Navy ROTC at Georgia Tech, and today I'd gladly jump back on board any boat they'd fill up with gas or diesel and give me the keys to; or climb back into the cockpit of anything with wings they could cram my crumpled up middle aged ass into, but as it is right now I guess I'll just settle for pounding on my keyboard in support of the efforts of men and women who need the work, feel the call to duty, and care about kicking the asses of the sniveling bastards overseas that want to run over the helpless and the hopeless peoples of this planet.

I Made A Roux--My own personal flirtation with Cajun Napalm--which would consist of about a cup of Peanut Oil and a little bit more than a cup of plain old white flour, heated up in a big skillet on my stove and stirred continuously until the mixture is a color somewhere between that of Peanut Butter and Chocolate.

I Put My Roux In My Gumbo--A stock made from a whole chicken, cut up and cooked slow in a giant pot along with chunks of garlic and carrot and celery and onion, then after straining everything but the clear liquid and the edible chunks of meat out...

tossed back into the pot with a couple pounds of Andoilli Sausage, more of the Holly Trinity (Onion, Celery, and Green Bell Pepper), the aforementioned Roux, and simmered slowly with things like salt and Cayenne pepper and finally the coup de gras...

a couple of pounds of Okra

thrown in for good measure.

All of this stuff, along with about ten cups of rice and Pat's dessert efforts, will be showing up at my office about 7 AM this morning to meet up with my fellow injuneer Tony's Cornbread.

Feel free to get yourself a bowl and spoon and come join us about noon...

If you will.

Obama's Mother In Law's Moving To Washington?

You Better Watch It Sucka'...

Wild Fires...or Mother Nature's Weedeater?

I Guess Now People In California Know How Ants And Grasshoppers Feel When We Walk By Pushing A Lawnmower..

'Nother Quote O' The Day..

I Once Saw This Written On A Men's Room Wall...

"If you work for a man, in heaven's name work for him!

If he pays you wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him-speak well of him, think well of him, stand by him and stand by the institution he represents.

I think if I worked for a man I would work for him. I would not work for him a part of the time, and the rest of the time work against him. I would give an undivided service or none.

If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness."

Elbert_Hubbard
American writer, publisher, artist
1856-1915

From Whence Our President Elect Came?

Sherman's Orders During The March To The Sea... 144 years ago


... IV. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather, near the route traveled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten day's provisions for the command and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass, but during a halt or a camp they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock of their camp. To regular foraging parties must be instructed the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the road traveled.

V. To army corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, &c., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility.

VI. As for horses, mules, wagons, &c., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit, discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor or industrious, usually neutral or friendly. Foraging parties may also take mules or horses to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments or brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive or threatening language, and may, where the officer in command thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no receipts, and they will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance.

VII. Negroes who are able-bodied and can be of service to the several columns...

may be taken along, but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one and that his first duty is to see to them who bear arms. ...

– William T. Sherman , Military Division of the Mississippi Special Field Order 120, November 9, 1864.



(in other words, take along as many Negros as you can afford to feed)

How times have changed...

heh...

Like A Dog Turd In The Punch Bowl?

Or Is He Caviar In A World Full Of Spam...


I just now watched some rerun on FOX News of our dear and soon departing President Bush walking up onto stage at some inane world event, and as the no-name people in front of and behind him in line heartily shook hands with the other nobodies--I was struck with how many people WOULD NOT SHAKE PRESIDENT BUSH'S HAND and he resorted to looking at the floor mat in front of him as he made his way along the runway like he was afraid he would trip over something.

What a total bunch of Miserable Crapheads...