The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.
That would be the bipartisan Party-In-Government for those new to this place. I just got an e-mail from Team McCain touting the green section of the John McCain store.
If I didn’t have a Drinking Right to go to, I’d explore why the cap-and-trade scheme is just as odious as the ‘Rat command-and-conquer scheme. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity – “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Germantown school board – Let’s try that $16.5 Taj Mahal elementary school referendum that failed by 10 points again with absolutely, positively no changes again in November
(H/T – a semi-retired Cheddarsphere denzien)
I guess we can add Bloomer High School principal Brent Ashland, Bloomer School District Superintendent Doug Martin, and the majority of the Bloomer School Board, headed by president Joe Zeman to those whose patriotism we no longer need to question because they have none. Why? Allow me to recap the Chippewa Herald story I linked to:
– Bloomer High School senior Daniel Lingen finished his studies early so he could complete Marine Corps boot camp before the graduation ceremony on May 31.
– He requested permission from principal Brent Ashland to wear his soon-to-be-earned Marine dress blue uniform instead of the traditional cap-and-gown at said ceremony. Ashland, with no written policy to guide him, refused to allow this.
– His father, Charles Lingen, took his son’s case to the school board, after getting conflicting excuses for the refusal.
– On Monday, after what school board president Joe Zeman called weeks of discussion both among school board members and between school board members and the public, and after a snap decision to put this on the agenda the prior Friday and thus barely meet the requirements under the Open Meetings statutes, the school board adopted a cap-and-gown only policy written by superintendent Doug Martin. Of note, an attempt to carve out an exception for military dress uniforms died for a lack of a second to the motion offered by Ralph Bruxvoort.
The Chippewa Herald was thoughful enough to include a statement from the Bloomer School District. As you read it, note that there was no official uniform for graduation until after Daniel Lingen made his request and after the Bloomer School District spoke to their military representative:
The School District of Bloomer released the following statement Tuesday morning on the board’s decision:
It is the position of the School District of Bloomer that high school graduation, although it may hold different personal meaning for each individual, is a ceremony to recognize and honor students for their academic achievement in earning a Bloomer High School diploma.
Based on this, the Board of Education has determined that the appropriate attire for the Bloomer High School graduation ceremony will be the traditional cap and gown as selected by the Class of 2008.
In weighing this decision, the School Board and administration received input from individuals and groups on both sides of the issue, within and outside the community, including a representative of the U.S. Military. The military representative we talked with informed us that he understood our position because the military is all about uniformity; and if the uniform of a high school graduate is the cap and gown, all graduates should wear the cap and gown.
Unfortunately, there are some that will claim that by requiring graduates to wear the cap and gown, rather than their respective military uniform, that the district is somehow unpatriotic or unsupportive of those that serve our country. Drawing this conclusion is not an accurate assessment of the genuine appreciation felt by the individuals that comprise the School Board and administrative team.
The School Board and administration of the School District of Bloomer hold in highest regard the men and women who join and serve in our country’s military. We both respect and admire the sacrifices these individuals make to defend our national and individual freedom.
We are extremely grateful to our graduating students who choose to take this honorable path and, in recognition of that, there is time set aside during the Bloomer High School graduation program to acknowledge their commitment.
By adopting this official position only after it became an issue, and by at the least misleading that military representative what the official position of the school district was, I would say that deeming the school district is unpatriotic and unsupportive of the military is an accurate assessment.
So, the bipartisan Party-In-Government is about to “fix” a $652.3 million deficit in the current budget with, at least in part, what is claimed to be $69 million in reduced spending. Let’s take a look at what the state spent out of the general fund last fiscal year (numbers courtesy the Department of Administration) and what they’re going to spend out of it this fiscal year and next fiscal year, both with the present budget and with the semi-negotiated “fix” (numbers courtesy the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, with a $125 million upward adjustment to the “fix” for school payments pushed into the next budget, a net $121 million upward adjustment related to the tobacco re-refinancing, and a $69 million downward adjustment for the unspecified cuts the LFB considers “revenue”):
General spending in FY2007 doubled – $26.662 billion
General spending in FY2008-FY2009 current budget (as of now) – $27.952 billion
Net increase of spending in the current budget over FY2007 doubled – $1.290 billion (or if you prefer an averaged annual increase, $645 million per year)
General spending in FY2008-FY2009 “fix” (includes a net $177 million in upward adjustments outlined above) – $27.969 billion
Net increase of spending in the “fix” over FY2007 doubled – $1.307 billion (or if you prefer the averaged annual increase, $653.5 million per year)
Net increase in spending in the “fix” over the current budget – $17 million
That’s right, sports fans. The bipartisan Party-In-Government is planning on using a self-created budget crisis to increase spending even more. It’s time to send this barrel of pork back to the drawing board.
Today’s song is dedicated to Dave Jones…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeZxRYXZ154[/youtube]
Just in case you Cheddarheads weren’t paying attention, the May Drinking Right is tonight at 7 at the usual spot (Papa’s Social Club). Be there, or be somewhere not as fun.
As oil and in turn gas, prices continue to increase and no action or plans in sight that suggest any near term reduction, I’m seeing articles and comments along the lines of, “It’s not uncommon in Europe to pay $7 for a gallon of gas. If they can stomach it, so can we.”
An example of this logic is in this opinion piece by Paul Krugman. Krugman takes what is otherwise a thoughtful argument i.e. all the talk about speculation driving an “oil bubble” may not be based on well reasoned economics but rather on wishful thinking, and destroyed his credibility with:
The consequences of that (oil) scarcity probably won’t be apocalyptic: France consumes only half as much oil per capita as America, yet the last time I looked, Paris wasn’t a howling wasteland. But the odds are that we’re looking at a future in which energy conservation becomes increasingly important, in which many people may even "” gasp "” take public transit to work.
Why is this kind of logic silly? How about a quick geography lesson.
France has an area of approximately 250,000 square miles, about the size of Texas which is approximately 269,000 square miles. France has a population of 64M people which means they have a density of approximately 256 people/Sq. Mi. Texas has a population of 24M people which means they have a density of approximately 164 people/Sq. Mi. Beginning to see an issue? Let’s extrapolate that to the entire United States. To be generous, I’ll exclude Alaska and Hawaii. The continental US has an area of 3.2 Million Sq. Mi. The continental US population is approximately 302 million people. That translates to a density of only 94 people/sq. mi. I won’t even drag you through the densities that exist west of the Mississippi and east of the Pacific coastal states. To suggest that a European country that is a fraction of the size of the US with a population density nearly 3X the US is comparable in energy use is naive at best and dishonest at worst.
OK, let’s try a different tact. Let’s assume we could get rid of all those nasty, hydrocarbon burning, carbon dioxide spewing personal vehicles. If tomorrow we banned the use of all personal vehicles we would at most, reduce our oil per capita consumption by 40% (it would be less than 40% because of course, we’d have to provide transit solutions for those people and many of those solutions involve petroleum as the fuel). Even with a 40% reduction, we’d still be using 10% more per capita than France.
My point in all of this is that trying to compare the US to a European country, especially one that is a fraction of the size of the US with a population density nearly 3X the US, as comparable in energy use is naive at best and dishonest at worst.
The only way that we are close to being comparable to Europe is in the taxes and other costs waiting to be imposed to “solve” our energy “problem” by forcibly removing our need for oil. Oh, and another way that we’ll be like Europe, we’ll be heading for our own “Dark Ages.”
(H/T – Allahpundit/Hot Air Headlines)
At least that’s what the Palestinians think according to WorldNetDaily. Let’s take a quick, way-too-late-at-night (or is it morning already?) look at the tale of the tape:
Positives:
Negatives:
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