Bury Who?

What is this nonsense? I wish we could see an embalmed Grover Cleveland.

Another Test

I hate to hit everyone with another test so soon, but this is important.

Discretion

Police Discretion

Paid

Here are some cool sites on the PA Legislature's shitty pay raise:

Democracy Rising

Rock The Capital

Clean Sweep (My Personal Favorite)

Gene Stilp

It should be law, that all state a federal legislatures should make the average salary of their jurisdiction. Who is with me?

Pop Quiz

This information will be on the test.

Why I Don't Make Babies

Theyhave the testing scores of all local elementary schools in the newspaper today. Eddystone actually didn’t do that bad. %41 were considered “advanced” in math with %0 being considered “below average” (the only school in Ridley to do so). Reading wasn’t as good, only %16 were considered advanced, but reading was down all over the region. Woodlyn was by far the worst in Ridley with %29 above average in math and %9 in reading.

Of course, the schools along the main line are another story, many have %70 to %80 of their kids above average. While schools in the Chester Upland district were under %10 for math and reading. That is a lot of disparity in a relatively small area.

So what is it that makes the big difference? My hypothesis is breakfast. The kids that do better are eating breakfast.

But seriously, I wonder a lot about that difference. I’m sure that there is a direct correlation to the percentage of parents that went to college, but that may be just a result of the mysterious underlying cause. Some kids are coached ab ovo to take these tests and do well on them. I think even if most parents in Eddystone wanted to do that, they would not have the ability to do so, because they don’t have the information needed themselves (both the knowledge of the subjects and just as importantly, knowledge of the intricacies of the academic system.)

For instance my mother was extremely supportive of my academic interests, but she did not know where to place the emphasis – meaning she didn’t force-feed me the stuff that would be on these tests. If I wanted to know about the Titanic (not on the exams I assume) at the expense of my math knowledge, she would support that. I’m glad it turned out that way. But other parents know how to play the game – and they do. So what is the right thing for the parent do? Allow the child to pursue their interests at the cost of test scores? Who knows. What I do know is that we should all be very skeptical of any wishy washy “follow your dreams” “grades don’t matter” popular wisdom because depending on what you want to do, grades may determine the course of your life.

The total results are here.

The Death of the Death Tax

The estate tax, that wonderful contradiction – it affects %2 of the country (those making more than one million – yet it seems the working class is completely opposed to it as if it could ever affect them.  These articles are pretty good at showing how the opposition to the death tax (do I need to mention them by name?) spun the matter in such a way as to make it seem as though it is unfair.  Of course, the only unfair thing here is the way they make that money by sitting on their asses.  They would like you to believe (and they have been successful) that every multi-millionaire got there through hard work.  They may have worked hard, but it would have been impossible but for the money they themselves inherited.  They owe society a debt.

Here

Here

Marketing 101

My Meshuggah tickets arrived in the mail with an advertisement for Disney on Ice in the envelope.  At first I though that it was stupid and wasteful of them, but then I realized that they probably know something about the Meshuggah fan base that I don’t want to know and will never accept.

This Guy

I like this guy.

The Law Begins

The reasoning behind a lot of laws:

“The crime of adultery, which is unenforced because we want to continue our conduct, and unrepealed because we want to preserve our morals.”

T. Arnold, The Symbols of Government 160 (135)

An interesting story

An interesting story about the Eddystone lighthouse (the mythological basis of our community).

“"What are some of the lessons nature teaches us?  One is the lesson of humility and, with it, a recognition that we are dependent on a Power beyond ourselves. James Buckingham tells the story of the Eddystone Lighthouse in Plymouth, England.  When first constructed, it bore the inscription:

   Blow O Winds, Rise O Ocean
   Break Forth Ye Elements, and Try My Work.

A few years later it was destroyed in a storm.  Then an architect named John Smeaton rebuilt it and placed an inscription at its base from the Book of Proverbs:

   Except the Lord Build the House,
   They Labor in Vain.

That was more than a century ago.  The lighthouse is still standing."”

USA

"I am absolutely disgusted. After the tsunami our people, even the ones who lost everything, wanted to help the others who were suffering," said Sajeewa Chinthaka, 36, as he watched a cricket match in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

"Not a single tourist caught in the tsunami was mugged. Now with all this happening in the U.S. we can easily see where the civilized part of the world's population is."

OKAYY!

I got this email today:

FROM: RICHARD DEWAR

Dear,

This email might come to you as a surprise but I plead with you to read
before a decision to assist or not. I wish to solicit for your
assistance in a transaction, which I strongly believe will be of mutual benefit
to all parties.

My name is Richard Dewar Regional Head of a leading Bank here in South
Africa. My colleagues and I wish to seek your assistance in transfer of
an unclaimed huge inheritance fund.

The said funds were deposited five years ago by Mr. Jonas Savimbi, the
leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA). They have been in control of a large part of Angola for more than
twenty years until Mr. Savimbi was tragically killed in combat against
the government forces in the central eastern province of Moxico in
Angola on the 22nd of February 2002.

Unfortunately, he could not live until the maturity of the fixed
deposit in our bank which was last year. He appointed his foreign partner as
the next of kin to the deposit, but after a serious research we found
out that no one is actually aware of this fund as the present government
of Angola is now confiscating any property or account belonging to Mr.
Savimbi. However if the fund is unclaimed and discovered by the Reserve
Bank of South Africa it will be donated to Dr. Nelson Mandela charity
organization, this is the reason why we need the funds transferred into
a foreign account as soon as possible.

All modalities for the successful transfer of this fund into an
offshore bank account have been put in place and we are looking for a
trustworthy foreign partner into whose bank account this fund will be remitted.
Based on this my colleagues have mandated me to provide a foreign
partner who is willing to assist us. We have agreed to compensate you upon
completion of the transaction if you should accept to assist us.

Please reach me via the above details if you are able to assist us. We
assure you that this transaction is 100% risk free as the beneficiary
is dead. For more about Mr. Savimbi please access the links below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1837565.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1836737.stm



Regards,


Richard Dewar.
Assalam  Muialaku.


OKAYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Where do I sign up?  Maybe I should give you my social security number as well just in case.  Hell just to be safe why don’t I give you the account numbers of my friends and family as well, that way if it doesn’t work you can try another one!  


The scary part is people fall for this stuff.

Eggshells

Like I was saying…eggshells.

“Mayor Ray Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and stop thieves who were becoming increasingly hostile.
"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas — hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said Wednesday.
Tempers also were starting to flare. Police said a man in Hattiesburg, Miss., fatally shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice. Dozens of carjackings were reported, including a nursing home bus and a truck carrying medical supplies for a hospital. Some police officers said they had been shot at.”