Our education system sucks? lets throw more money at it.

Okay now that I'm good and pissed off after having a discussion that veered onto this subject with a friend..
Let me point out I'm getting beyond tired of having this conversation when in world rankings we're supposedly among the worst educated as far as our kids are concerned then other nations. Yet *gasp* shockingly[NOT!]  we spend more than any other developed nation on EARTH, on education, per student and per capita.   The highest spending in the rest of the world is Luxembourg and in "2010" dollars they spent about $15,000 per student in 2007!  Here's hint...want to know what The State of New York alone spent per student in 2011? $19,076...it has almost assuredly gone up in the last 2yrs.
The District of Columbia...you know...are nations capitol?  Spent just a few dollar shy of $18,500. HELL!  Alaska, a state with a population of less than a million people even spent $16,674.  So tell me again how throwing more money at the problem is going to fix it?  Newsflash it's not.  You know what most of the highest spending states almost all have in common? They are NON right to work states. That is...union states. There are a few exceptions to the rule. The following Right to Work states all spend over $10,000 per student per year.
North Dakota
Wyoming
Nebraska
Louisiana
Virginia.

You know what though? I'm a firm believer in the STATE being able to decide what it spends per student per year on education.  By comparison my own beloved state only spent about $8600 per student for the year 2011. I suspect  in the years I was in school that number was even less.

That being said...tossing more money is stuffing that money in a rathole to keep the rodents out. Won't work.


Oh as for where I'm getting my info?

 http://www.businessinsider.com/us-education-spending-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-developed-world-2012-1#ixzz2q9B2ybrE




http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html


 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/oecd-education-report_n_3496875.html

http://www.msubillings.edu/caer/quality_rankings_of_education_in.htm

Gun Control works? It's for the children!

MY ASS!

This one is going to be quick, dirty, profane and sans links boys and girls. Don't believe what I'm telling you...then look it up for your goddamned selves.  Because we've HAD this fucking conversation before. Repeatedly and it's making me irritable.  Oh and hat tip to my buddy miguel for the spanish language article on this that set my temper raging again.   http://gunfreezone.net/wordpress/

Okay fucking seriously?  I'm tired of the gun control crowd. I'd like to round them all up, strip them naked, strap chutes on them and then drop them into some of the more...."enlightened" areas of the world. Africa? pick a country on that continent.  Middle of the Arabian Desert?  Any known surviving Al Qeuda camps? China?  Nah if china got to drop them fully clothed and laden with all sorts of goodies, falsified documents, electronic spy gear[bugs and mini cams] etc. Only way to do china frankly.   Such a plethora of choices....mmmm.

Everyone talks about gun control being a good thing. Hmmm don't think so.

Lets talk about Venezuela...AGAIN.  Gun Control Paradise.  Highly restrictive gun laws. only allowed one gun per person or household...forget which at the moment.  That gun is registered with the government. Oh and it can be taken/confiscated with no rhyme or reason,  with no warning what so ever. At any time.

Under beloved leader Hugo Chavez [long may his rotting fucking corpse feed the beetles and worms] they closed the very last gun store in Venezuela in late 2011.

Population...ie demographic.  Venezuela is a COUNTRY with a population density on par with a US STATE. One state in particular..MINE.  Their population depending on which website you track with is between 27-28 million right now.    Their murder rate is between 18-21000 a year EVERY year for years and years...more than a decade.  This year according to a spanish language article I ran across, and an NGO that tracks violence in Venezuela...they will have a BANNER RECORD year for murders come the close of 2013.  According to that NGO if the murder rate stays stable they will finish out THIS year with 24,763 murders.  That is fully just a gnats ass shy of a full ONE PERCENT of their population.That is anywhere between 3-6 THOUSAND more murders than the last decade or better's stats.   Now by comparison. The Great State of Texas in which I live, whom according to the gun grabbing, hanky stomping pussies that want your guns; our states gun laws are pretty lax. What is our murder rate? Meh we average between 1050-1150 give or take a few dozen either way.   That means boys and girls that our "gun law lax" STATE has 20  times LESS murders than the gun control paradise of Venezuela, this year.  Hell! Venezuela's murder rate this year is going to be around half and a again, or 10000 or more than the murder stats for the ENTIRE United States! This in a country with 13 times LESS the population of the US!  Wrap your empty skulls around THAT statistic and CHOKE on it you gun grabbing fucktards.   By comparison the murder rate for the US, in terms of population murdered hasn't changed much in the last 60yrs or better.  Our percentage of dead is almost invariably between .004-.009%.  For those of you who don't remember your basic math, slept through the class or you young folk that probably didn't get this basic part of math learning in the last decade or so...what that is is 4-9 THOUSANDTHS of ONE PERCENT.  That's practically infitesimal!    Oh and before anyone brings up England...Guess what the numbers for England are skewed. Because in England unless it's investigated as, tried as and convicted as a murder...it doesn't go in the books as a murder.  Put it another similar way for you. Unless you get an actual CONVICTION then it doesn't go in the official government stats as a murder.  Hell I read an official government document from their Dept of Justice once  that states in the preface that the numbers are off on everything because, especially for most petty crimes...most victims don't even bother to report crimes! Why? because the people tend to feel, rightly, that their  justice system is as useless tits on a boar hog.

And as I've also pointed out before.
Brazil? Whom the Olympics Committee was STUPID enough to give the forthcoming summer olympics to?   Their average murder rate, before that was between 45-50000 a year. And THAT in a country with half the population of the US. That's taken a drop for two reasons. Brazil and their law enforcement declared open season on gangs and criminals and started killing them in job lots. I'd also put good money on the idea that the Brazilian gov't made some back room deals with some of the bigger crime syndicates.

Africa?  Don't even get me fucking started. However for your edification outside of tribal driven genocide and warfare...Africa averages 150000 per year. Add in the numbers from genocide and warfare and the numbers will really make you puke. It's why I've always maintained that the continent is nothing but a black hole for blood, money, and tears.


That is all.

Remember TANSTAAFL and...

I now return you to your regularly scheduled inanity and insanity.

Duck Dynasty brouhaha

 You know..I keep getting into arguments with addlepated assholes over this so figured I'd put it down here. Besides I'm long overdue for a new post.
[*shrug* sorry lads and lasses] 
Note...there WILL be foul languange. So if your an easily offended idiot...don't bother reading any further. OTOH feel free...maybe the outrage you feel will spike your blood pressure and cause your head to explode and splatter skull fragments everywhere.

Okay seriously? All you morons getting driven into a foaming at the mouth frenzy by this manufactured faux outrage...need to go back to school and learn reading comprehension. Right now I'd give most of you a big fucking F for failure.  Hell! I doubt most of you bothered to read the damn article that has your titties in a twist.

The question Phil was ASKED, mind you ASKED; meaning he didn't just all the sudden go off on a rambling rampage; the question ol Phil was asked was "What in your mind is sinful?"  Phil answered honestly

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

 He didn't say Homosexuality leads to bestiality, as some of the progressive propaganda spin doctors are saying.  He's saying that he believes all those ARE sins. Guess what? They are, they are in the bible as such,  you overly indulgent self absorbed bloviating bitches.  Whether YOU believe in the bible is irrelevant , you witless twats.  Phil however DOES believe the 'good book' and therefore those are all sins.  Homosexuality for instance...

From Leviticus in the King James edition of the bible...which is what a great many people read
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

To wit...

21'You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the LORD. 22'You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. 23'Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.…

These are all perversions and abominations in the eyes of God. Therefore they are sins and particularly heinous ones.   These sins, these excesses and a litany of others are WHY God destroyed the cities of Soddom and Gomorah.  

"“We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?”

Phil would most likely be the first person to jump into the middle of a fracas where a person or persons are beating upon someone just for being gay. First to start throwing punches and kick to get those useless fuckers off the poor soul, help that gay person up off the ground where they lay beaten and bruised and offer to help clean them up.  Phil's opinion is not homophobic. He like god doesn't hate the sinner. He loves the sinner irregardless but does NOT love the sin itself.   

Seriously...why is holding a dissenting opinion about someone else lifestyle choice "hateful", but only if you're a conservative or a libertarian. According to the progressives  if you don't agree with the LGBT lifestyle you're homophobic.  If you don't agree with popular black culture [rap, popular TV, gangsta/thug life images] you hate blacks and are racist.  If you don't want people coming over the border and want our border security tighter and people who cross it illegally to be punished and expelled, those people mostly being from mexico but not only from mexico, you hate the latino community and are racist.  By the way people...racism doesn't exist. What you ignorant folks are griping about is called.. tribalism.   Yet those same progressives can say the most heinous things and what they say ISN'T hateful?  Fuck that shit and fuck them!

The ones really spewing the hate tend to be those on the left, be they politicians, media mavens or just the willfully ignorant among the proletariat, ie every day citizens who espouse liberal/progressive beliefs.

I've said my piece. feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

Remember..TANSTAAFL and...

I now return you to your regularly scheduled inanity and insanity.

The Presidents Statement on Government Shutdown

 Okay boys and girls. I caught a little bit of this bit of sophistry this afternoon. If I hadn't been trying to cook supper at the time so got a grip on my temper...I might be sans TV right now. Okay that and I REALLY don't want to have to shell out for a new television when my excuse would be "the presidents duplicitous deceitfulness and stupidity made me do something stupid.

Anyway my fisking will be interspersed and in bold. Let the fscking commence.....

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Of all the responsibilities the Constitution endows to Congress, two should be fairly simple:  pass a budget, and pay America’s bills.

Yep and you and the dem majority haven't managed to do the first since you and the dems won in 08.  Hell you couldn't even be bothered to pass a budget when you had complete control of both fucking  houses!  Nope...too busy ramming a bill down our throats in the dead of night that gives the government access and control over one of the largest portions of our economy. Medical care.

But if the United States Congress does not fulfill its responsibility to pass a budget today, much of the United States government will be forced to shut down tomorrow.  And I want to be very clear about what that shutdown would mean -- what will remain open and what will not.

Again...congress has done nothing but pass "Continuing Resolutions" which allow you to keep spending at current levels without any accountability since your rise to power. 

With regard to operations that will continue:  If you’re on Social Security, you will keep receiving your checks.  If you’re on Medicare, your doctor will still see you.  Everyone’s mail will still be delivered.  And government operations related to national security or public safety will go on.  Our troops will continue to serve with skill, honor, and courage.  Air traffic controllers, prison guards, those who are with border control -- our Border Patrol will remain on their posts, but their paychecks will be delayed until the government reopens.  NASA will shut down almost entirely, but Mission Control will remain open to support the astronauts serving on the Space Station.

Really? All these things will remain open? Does that include NSA, CIA, FBI, IRS etc etc?  If so then the government isn't completely shut down is it?

 I also want to be very clear about what would change.  Office buildings would close.  Paychecks would be delayed.  Vital services that seniors and veterans, women and children, businesses and our economy depend on would be hamstrung.  Business owners would see delays in raising capital, seeking infrastructure permits, or rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy.  Veterans who’ve sacrificed for their country will find their support centers unstaffed.  Tourists will find every one of America’s national parks and monuments, from Yosemite to the Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty, immediately closed.  And of course, the communities and small businesses that rely on these national treasures for their livelihoods will be out of customers and out of luck.

Sorry but the parks aren't critical are they? Sure they bring in tourist dollars to the parks and surrounding communities but critical to government operation? Nah...don't think so.  Why would business owners see delays in raising capital oh great one?  Since they can get that capital from their fellow free citizens in private industry?  Permits?  Permits are nothing more than a means to extort yet MORE money from folks who already pay too much in taxes.   Rebuilding after a hurricane sucks but they didn't take anywhere NEAR the damage up north that we took here in the south from say....Katrinaa[and there was a lot of unnecessary and unprosecuted graft there wasn't there?] and Ike.  Sorry I feel for the people affected but by and large the people down here picked themselves up by their bootstraps and rebuilt on their own.

And in keeping with the broad ramifications of a shutdown, I think it’s important that everybody understand the federal government is America’s largest employer.  More than 2 million civilian workers and 1.4 million active-duty military serve in all 50 states and all around the world.  In the event of a government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of these dedicated public servants who stay on the job will do so without pay -- and several hundred thousand more will be immediately and indefinitely furloughed without pay.

Yes lets talk about that?  WHY is the federal government the largest employer?  Our forefathers did NOT create this nation to have a government be the largest employer They BUILT it so free thinking, intelligent FREE citizens could build their OWN businesses and employ each other with minimal interference from the government.  Or be self employed, again building a business with minimal interference from the government.   The government, the massive number of citizens be DAMNED...was never intended to be the overarching, overreaching overbearing monstrosity that it is now.  And that Bill I mentioned that got rammed through in the middle of the night most didn't want? The ACA?  Will create 10's of thousands...some say HUNDREDS of thousands of more positions within the government. 16000 in the IRS alone. What. The. Fuck?!

What, of course, will not be furloughed are the bills that they have to pay -- their mortgages, their tuition payments, their car notes.  These Americans are our neighbors.  Their kids go to our schools.  They worship where we do.  They serve their country with pride.  They are the customers of every business in this country.  And they would be hurt greatly, and as a consequence, all of us will be hurt greatly, should Congress choose to shut the people’s government down.


Yes those who work for the government will be hurt....but most of the REST of america, outside of those on the dole have been hurting for YEARS.

So a shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people, right away.  Past shutdowns have disrupted the economy significantly.  This one would, too.  It would throw a wrench into the gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some traction.

Gained traction? ROFLOLOLOL

Five years ago right now, our economy was in meltdown.  Today, our businesses have created 7.5 million new jobs over the past three and a half years.  The housing market is healing and our deficits are falling fast.  The idea of putting the American people’s hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility. 

And it doesn’t have to happen.  Let me repeat this:  It does not have to happen.  All of this is entirely preventable if the House chooses to do what the Senate has already done -- and that’s the simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and controversial demands in the process, the same way other Congresses have for more than 200 years.


Anyone ever notice that when someone objects to what the president, the rest of the dems and their lackeys want to do...it's controversial? It's extreme?  It's unreasonable?  It's UnAmerican? Or any other descriptive you care to name? 

Unfortunately, right now House Republicans continue to tie funding of the government to ideological demands like limiting a woman’s access to contraception, or delaying the Affordable Care Act, all to save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party.

Ahh now we're going from extraneous and controversial, to ideological demands  to saving face and extreme right wing.    Extreme when the republicans presented and passed a budget that would fund EVERY facet of the government monstrosity EXCEPT for ACA?

So let me be clear about this.  An important part of the Affordable Care Act takes effect tomorrow no matter what Congress decides to do today.  The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. That funding is already in place.  You can’t shut it down.  This is a law that passed both houses of Congress; a law that bears my signature; a law that the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional; a law that voters chose not to repeal last November; a law that is already providing benefits to millions of Americans in the form of young people staying on their parents’ plan until they’re 26, seniors getting cheaper prescription drugs, making sure that insurance companies aren't imposing lifetime limits when you already have health insurance, providing rebates for consumers when insurance companies are spending too much money on overhead instead of health care.

Insurance companies are spending too much money on overhead instead of healthcare? Hmmmm
readers? read this link...

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/how-much-money-do-insurance-companies-make-a-primer/?_r=0

Yeah that one seems to tell a DIFFERENT story doesn't it? that one company after an income for 60 some million paid out $48 million of that in claims and medical expenses of its customers to doctors, labs, hospitals etc.

Those things are already happening.

Starting tomorrow, tens of millions of Americans will be able to visit HealthCare.gov to shop for affordable health care coverage.  So Americans who’ve lived for years in some cases with the fear that one illness could send them into bankruptcy, Americans who’ve been priced out of the market just because they’ve been sick once, they’ll finally be able to afford coverage -- quality coverage -- many of them for the first time in their lives.

Here's one that never gets discussed. What about those us who are basically healthy and never saw the NEED to shell out for health insurance?  See I'm of the mind that health insurance should not cover every single fucking thing.  Drugs? Okay cover part of that maybe especially some of the more expensive mother fuckers that cost several hundred dollars a month for just a one month supply of ONE drug. The other side of the coin is the PHARMA companies offer deals and help in that regard. Besides do you have any idea what it costs the Pharma companies to get just ONE goddamn drug to market and how many years of research, testing and jumping through government hoops they have to go through to get it to market?

Here's one article and no you aren't hallucinating..a DECADE  minimum goes into getting just ONE drug to market.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2013/08/11/how-the-staggering-cost-of-inventing-new-drugs-is-shaping-the-future-of-medicine/
However lets go back to those that don't see the point in the expense...like ME.  I visit the doctor on average maybe ONCE a year. that's not for a check up either.  It's generally when my allergies flare up something awful and I have to go in and get a new script anyway for my nasal inhaler, and now bronchial inhaler for intermittent bronchitis.  That's it.  So why am I going to spend upwards of $12-15000 a year I could put to better use elsewhere for coverage I don't see a point to.  Now if offered the option I might do a plan now that I'm getting older, a plan that offers catastrophic coverage for hospital visits and doesn't cover my drugs or doctors visits.  That I might do. Outside of that?  No, hell no.

Some of them may be sick as we speak.  And this is their best opportunity to get some security and some relief.  Tens of thousands of Americans die every single year because they don’t have access to affordable health care.  Despite this, Republicans have said that if we lock these Americans out of affordable health care for one more year -- if we sacrifice the health care of millions of Americans -- then they’ll fund the government for a couple more months.  Does anybody truly believe that we won’t have this fight again in a couple more months?  Even at Christmas?

Wait, what's this 'don't have access to healthcare' shit?   You can go to the hospital if your sick and they will see you. You can even, if you're broke, appeal to the hospital board for hardship cases and the hospital will waive the fees if the board approves.  It can be done, I've SEEN it done.    So sell that particular pile of shit to someone who believes a single word that comes out of your mouth.

So here’s the bottom line:  I’m always willing to work with anyone of either party to make sure the Affordable Care Act works better, to make sure our government works better.  I’m always willing to work with anyone to grow our economy faster, or to create new jobs faster, to get our fiscal house in order for the long run.  I’ve demonstrated this time and time again, oftentimes to the consternation of my own party.

Willing to work with? Seems to me that anytime the other side comes to the table they always go home sorry and sore and it's your way or the highway.

 But one faction of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government doesn’t get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election.

YES actually they DO. See the HOUSE controls the nations purse strings; NOT you and NOT the senate.  The HOUSE is the nations minder of the checkbook and dispenser of funds...if they don't let the funds go out...whatever pet project your pandering to the profuse number of sheep out there to, doesn't get funded.  The house is...for lack of a better analogy...the economic advisor to the PEOPLE. An executor if you will.   Wait...I got it. The HOUSE holds a Power of Attorney from the people, giving them financial responsibility and control over the REST of the government. The HOUSE in effect gets to...tell the rest of the government where to shove it, when the funds are lacking. The house has quite frankly been failing miserably in this regard for not just as long as the Second Coming of JFK has been in the white house but for more than a decade.  However the failure has been exceedingly egregious over the last 5yrs. Not entirely the fault of the minority party either, though they certainly bear a portion of the blame.   Understand now germs and virii?

Keeping the people’s government open is not a concession to me.  Keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of Americans on the job is not something you “give” to the other side.  It’s our basic responsibility.  It’s something that we’re doing for our military, and our businesses, and our economy, and all the hardworking people out there -- the person working for the Agricultural Department out in some rural community who’s out there helping some farmers make sure that they’re making some modest profit for all the hard work they’re putting in.  They’re the person working for HUD who’s helping somebody buy a house for the first time.  They’re somebody in a VA office who’s counseling one of our vets who’s got PTSD.

There you go again using strawmen, and emotional bullying to try and bulldozer over logical thought.  Dude seriously?  You are starting to bore the hell out of me. Put a zipper on your lips, zip them shut and then have someone come behind and weld that zipper shut. I'm tired of seeing your lips move and hearing the grating annoyance of your lying voice.

That’s who we’re here to serve.  That’s why we’re supposed to be carrying out these responsibilities.  It’s why we should be avoiding these kinds of constant brinksmanship.  It’s something that we do in the ordinary process of this extraordinary system of government that we have.  You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job; for doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway; or just because there’s a law there that you don’t like.

You aren't here to serve any but your own interests. You proved THAT one with the ACA. You've proved that one with some of the regulations that have come down at your direction, or those of your functionaries, from various agencies like the EPA...just to name one, the ATF for another.  the only time you SEE the people is when you look down to see what it is  you're stepping on.

The American people sent us here to govern.  They sent us here to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make their lives a little bit better -- to create new jobs, to restore economic security, to rebuild the prospects of upward mobility.  That’s what they expect.

No we sent you there to mind the store and then turn it over to the NEXT manager we hire and move the fuck on.   Yet you and those like you...especially in congress...seem to have forgotten that.  Otherwise there wouldn't be people in the house and senate that have been there as long as I've been ALIVE. There also wouldn't have been seats held for 50-80 YEARS by political DYNASTIES, iow held by the same FAMILIES for multiple generations. That is NOT what our forefathers intended, you and those before that have been corrupting those intentions for decades, some of my friends would say for well over a century.

And they understand that there are differences between the parties and we’re going to be having some tough fights around those differences.  And I respect the fact that the other party is not supposed to agree with me 100 percent of the time, just like I don’t agree with them.  But they do also expect that we don’t bring the entire government to a halt or the entire economy to a halt just because of those differences.

What I understand is those with you are either your contemporaries and only interested in power and control, or your sheepish servants who seem to CRAVE the slave chain;  because acting on their own and exercising not only their constitutional rights,  but personal responsibility, scares the ever loving hell out of them.

That’s what they deserve.  They’ve worked too hard, for too long to recover from previous crises just to have folks here in Washington manufacture yet another one that they have to dig themselves out of. 

So Congress needs to keep our government open, needs to pay our bills on time, and never, ever threaten the full faith and credit of the United States of America. 

And time is running out.  My hope and expectation is that in the eleventh hour, once again, that Congress will choose to do the right thing and that the House of Representatives, in particular, will choose the right thing.

No what we deserve is a government that stays the hell out our way.   My friend Ev read an article some time back that states that there has been so many laws and regulations passed in recent years; that your average american commits 3 felonies a day because he doesn't even know they exist.  Ev...if you still have the link feel free to paste it in the comments old friend.

Now lets move on to "Congress will choose to do the right thing and that the house of reps in particular will choose the right thing"  Uhmm they already HAVE chosen the right thing.
However.... in this context germs and virii what the right thing to do is by his lights...is to shut the fuck up, sit the down and do what you are damn well told.  Sorry...I ain't built that way.

Like Captain Mal from Firefly...at least SOME of those up in DC seem to be of the same mindset as me.  In that they aim to misbehave.  I applaud them for it.

Thus ends the fisking.

Remember TANSTAAFL and....

I now return you to your regularly scheduled inanity and insanity.