Why Education will collapse

Stupid pension tricks.

June 17, 2010

By KAREN BERKOWITZ kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com

Scores of retired teachers from some suburban high schools are pulling pensions of more than $100,000 a year because their school boards granted them raises of 40 percent as they headed toward the exits.

School districts that gave retiring teachers at least two pay bumps of 20 percent dominate the top ranks of districts with the most pensioners drawing six-figure income from the Teachers' Retirement System.

The runaway leader -- with 146 people in that category -- is Palatine Community High School District 211, a large northwest suburban district that serves 12,000 students in five high schools. The district includes Palatine, Conant, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg and Fremd high schools.

In second place is neighboring Township High School District 214, where 95 retired teachers and administrators are entitled to pensions of more than $100,000. Three dozen more retirees from District 214 will break into six figures following the next 3 percent pay raise.

District 214 educates nearly 12,000 students in six high schools: Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove, John Hersey, Prospect, Rolling Meadows and Wheeling.

Three north suburban high schools with smaller headcounts occupy the third, fourth and fifth spots on the list. Niles Township High School District 219, a district of two high schools, has 82 retirees drawing six-figure pensions and many more headed their way.

Highland Park Township District 113, made up of Deerfield and Highland Park high schools, has 73 pensioners drawing more than $100,000, and Northfield District 225, which encompasses Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South, has 51 in that category.

The legislature effectively banned pay spiking in 2005 when it put a 6 percent lid on educators' pay raises during the four years that count toward the benefit calculation. (Educators receive up to 75 percent of their final years' pay depending on their years of service.)

Read the whole thing.............

stupid energy

From Shannon Love

Every time I get into a debate about “alternative” energy I point out it can’t be used for baseline power because it can’t provide reliable power, and it can’t provide reliable power because you can’t store the electricity that it episodically generates.

Immediately, someone will say, “We can use hydraulic storage!”

Hydraulic storage is basically a hydroelectric dam on a small or large scale, except instead of using water brought by a watershed, the water is pumped up behind the dam with pumps powered by the generator whose energy output you want to store. For example, you would have electric pumps powered by solar panels or wind turbines, the idea being that when the wind or cloud-free days produced a surplus of power (or you built in surplus capacity) the pumps would pump water from a lower reservoir uphill into a higher storage reservoir. The electricity would be stored as the potential energy in the elevated water. When you needed the power back, you would drain the water back downhill through turbines just like a hydroelectric damn.

Now, this certainly works and it has been done on a small scale. However, it will never, ever be a real-world, large-scale solution that can make alternative power work.

Why? Well, let’s just do some back-of-the-envelope calculations.

(Note: Below when I say “conservative assumption” I mean an assumption biased in favor of alternative power.)

Let’s say we want alternative power to produce just 30% of our current baseline power needs. Let’s make a very conservative estimate that we only need to have a 25% stored reserve. (This very optimistically assumes that alternative power will otherwise be able to provide sufficient power, when it’s needed, 75% of the time.) So, 25% of 30% equals 7.5 % of the total (0.30*0.25=0.075).

By happenstance, hydroelectric power today produces 8% of the nation’s electricity. This means that if we want to use hydraulic storage to make alternative power work, we will have to recreate the 93% of the generating capacity of every currently existing hydroelectric facility in this country. That’s right, Hoover Dam, the entire TVA, all the damns in the Rock Mountains, all the rest, all duplicated.

That alone raises the question: Where the hell are we going to put these dang dams anyway? All the places with the geography and the water supply to produce hydroelectric power are already in use. Worse, all the places that produce significant amounts of solar and wind power are simultaneously the worst places to build hydroelectric facilities. Solar energy is produced most abundantly in, wait for it, the desert, and wind power is produced most abundantly in very, very flat places. So any hydroelectric storage facilities will have to be a long, long way off from the point of generation.

It gets even sillier. Hydroelectric storage is only around 25% efficient. This mean that to get 1 watt back out of the system you have to put 4 watts in. This in turn means that in order to create a 25% energy store of 30% of total power, you have to actually generate 30% of total power just to get 8% of total power back out. All that in addition to 30% of the total power that goes straight into the grid.

So, to get 30% of total power from an alternative power system you actually have to build the generating capacity to supply 60% of total power! Half of the alternative power will go into immediate consumption and half will be stored.

read the whole thing

The future of Medical Care is Bleak

Welcome to HELL!

They tell me the doctor Medicare cuts went through. You mean the AMA, with all their sound and fury signifying nothing, failed to influence our Congressional leadership?

Gee, who knew?

Folks, this was the plan. The cuts were supposed to go through. So look at it on the bright side. Our government just saved $250 billion!

And quietly, practices will downsize their nicest employees or close all together. Many others will speed up their flight to be bought by big hospital systems - but these hospital systems will be more selective when deciding who they admit to their ranks. Inner city hospitals, struggling for survival, will look to the government for more subsidies to meet their demands for survival. Government will comply to protect themselves. Big hospitals and health systems with lots of doctor-employees will point to the decreased revenue by their doctors, tighten their belts a bit more by maintaining their months-long hiring freezes indefinitely, and fail to give those productivity bonuses to their workers as their construction contracts for their additions continue to get paid as they get ready for the "Big Wave."

In business, nothing changes quickly. Especially big, money-hungry, bureaucratic machines. But the paranoia will grow amongst the administrative and medical supplier ranks as senior leadership looks to cut back. You see, doctors are just the first.

And then there's the patients. If you're in a big town, you won't notice the difference. That's because in the operating rooms, there will still be one nurse where there had been two. In the ICU's, your nurse will visit you a bit less, but thanks to electronics, she'll still be watching or listening for you. You might notice it's harder to understand the foreign accent of your doctor, but he or she will be pleasant. At least until the next doctor arrives on the night shift.

But for the rural patients. Best of luck. Hope you've got frequent flier miles or low mileage on your car. You're going to need it. I have no doubt that you'll be able to get a telemedicine doctor to see you, provided you have more than a dial-up connection and a new computer with a videocam. What, you can't afford one? Better ask the government for a computer, then, okay? And while you're on the phone, ask them how possible acute appendicitis will be handled, will you?

Fortunately, if you're below 65, you'll see the effects a bit later. But if you're over 65, better tap into your savings a bit, so you can pay to have a doctor.

That's just the way it's going to be.

Educational Insanity: Toy Soldiers Violate School Gun Policy

By Bob Ellis on June 18th, 2010

Do you ever get the feeling that our education system has been taken over by morons? I do.

From the Canadian Press:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Rhode Island mother says her son’s school cited its no-weapons policy in stopping the second-grader from wearing a patriotic hat he made to honour Army troops.

Christan Morales says her 8-year-old son, David, was assigned to make a crazy hat for his class at the Tiogue School in Coventry. She says they brainstormed and he came up with an idea to glue small plastic army figures to a camouflage hat with an American flag.

But she says David was not allowed to wear the hat for the project. Morales says his teacher called her to say it wasn’t appropriate because it had guns, violating a school ban on weapons and toy weapons.

These liberal idiots are completely bereft of common sense (perhaps anti-military, too?)…and what’s worse, they’re teaching our children not to exercise any, either.

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Will it be Sarah Vs Hillary in 2012

Looks like da Bamsta is going to be one terming it. So what now.

Lots of people think this will be the battle of the Power Women.

Should be fun.

Jobs down the drain

As our economy drifts off into the dark night, states and educational systems will find themselves more and more like this story from Sacramento.

Sacramento County is sending another 700-plus workers to the unemployment line.

That news came Thursday with the Board of Supervisors' passage of a fiscal year 2010-11 budget, a $1.94 billion general fund spending plan that will mean widespread reductions in programs and services countywide.

The severity of the layoffs will hurt the area's still-reeling economy, experts say.

"It's a significant loss of jobs and a significant loss of income," said Jeff Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific. "If it were a factory laying off 800 people this would be a major story, and it's no different with county government."

The good times are over for teachers and government workers. The money is all gone.

Margaret Thatcher once said that "The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

It's all over but the shouting and the shouting will be substantial.

OBAMA RULES FOR GOLF

NEW OBAMA RULES FOR GOLF:

0bama has now appointed a Golf Czar. Announcements were just made of major rule changes in the game of golf which will become effective 01 June 2010.

This is only a preview as the complete rule book is being rewritten as we speak. It will be written in English, Spanish, and a new edition in Farsi.

Here are a few basic changes:

Golfers with handicaps:
- below 10 will have their green fees increased by 35%.
- between 11 and 18 will see no increase in green fees.
- above 18 will get a $25 check each time they play.

The dollar amount placed in bets will be as follows:
-for handicaps below 10, an additional $10.
-between 11 and 18, no additional amount.
-above 18, you will receive the total amount in the pot even if you do not play.

The term “gimme” will be changed to “entitlement” and will be used as follows:
-handicaps below 10, no entitlements.
-handicaps from 11 to 17, entitlements for putter length putts.
-handicaps above 18, if your ball is on green, no need to putt, just pick your ball up.

These entitlements are intended to bring about fairness and, most importantly, equality in scoring.

In addition, a Player will be limited to a maximum of one birdie or six pars in any given 18-hole round. Any excess must be given to those fellow players who have not yet scored a birdie or par. Only after all players have received a birdie or par from the player actually making the birdie or par,can that player begin to count his pars and birdies again.

The current USGA handicap system will be used for the above purposes, but the term ‘net score’ will be available only for scoring those players with handicaps of 18 and above.

This is intended to ‘redistribute’ the success of winning by making sure that in every competition, the above 18 handicap players will post only ‘net score’ against every other player’s gross score.

These new Rules are intended to CHANGE the game of golf. Golf must be about fairness. It should have nothing to do with ability.

:
Doug is the owner of Stix Blog. He has also contributed to Grizzly Groundswell, Heading Right, Snooper Report, Modern Conservative. He is also the Managing Editor for Technology at 73 Wire. And can be found on twitter at stix1972. You can also leave me a voice mail at (618) 688-2156

Stupid

A new museum of World War II is opening in London. Some anonymous nanny stater has taken the liberty of airbrushing the cigar from Winston Churchill’s mouth.

It isn’t even a very good job as the whole lower left side of his face is distorted. The museum directors say they don’t know who did it. It is a mystery but not surprising.

The FDR Memorial that was put up in Washington a few years ago, does not show FDR with his cigarette holder that was so characteristic of him in public. I gave a cigarette holder like that to my grandfather when I was a child. He loved it because it made him look like FDR.

The FDR Memorial shows something that was never seen in public when he was alive. He is shown in a wheelchair. He would never have allowed that but the modern nannies have to draw the last drop of sanctimonious pap from the scene.

Thus goes the slow decline of common sense and reality in our lives and those of our friends.

The cover of a new book....Me Like

Asking, what is the American Way of Life?

What is the American Way of Life?

1. America has an ideology of free, independent individuals, and this self-image, and the conduct associated with it, are deeply rooted in our culture.
2. The foundation of this culture is the nuclear family, which creates enterprising and self-reliant families and individuals, and this type of family is different from the family types found in other cultures, which create expectations of dependency and which make lifelong demands oonest) observer would notice and say, “these are the things that make America n individuals.
3. The origins of this culture are in England, transmitted to us by the English colonists, and subsequent waves of migration have largely adapted themselves to it, and we expect others emigrating here to similarly adapt themselves to it.
4. Americans are egalitarian, believing that social classes either don’t exist, or should be open to entry by anyone, and that the rewards of life should be available to all, but granted to those who have earned them, or had good fortune, in an open, competitive process.
5. Americans have middle-class values, generally disliking the culture associated with poverty and not respecting the culture associated with unearned wealth. Americans want to own their own homes, and expect that their home is their castle. They built the suburbs because they like the life of the suburbs.
6. Americans want the freedom to come and go as they please, including by automobile.
7. Americans believe that major disputes should be solved by operation of law, that the legal system should be fair, that people should not have to make bribes or use self-help or personal violence to defend themselves or to solve major disputes. Nonetheless, Americans insist on having access to lethal force to defend their homes and themselves.
8. Americans believe that major economic decision should be made by individuals or voluntary groups, such as business corporations, not by the government.
9. Americans believe the government exists to protect them, their homes, their families, and their material well-being. They have low expectations about what governments can accomplish, and tend to distrust it. They expect government to operate reasonably honestly and transparently, and without excessive corruption.
10. Americans are empiricists, practical-minded, open to technology, and optimistic about the prospects of material progress. Americans are realists about the defects of human nature and are not utopian.

Is the Gulf Oil Spill proof of the fallacy of Peak Oil?

I have wondered since the advent of the spill. How is this possible? I thought we were down to a trickle.

But, I am aware of the ABIOTIC theory of Oil. That there is no shortage of oil. This oil spill MIGHT have the benefit of proving that.

Here is a pretty good article. Read it.

You will see. Agree or not, it doesn't matter. If the Abiotic production of oil is true, the world will change.

Humility in Relationships

TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1, by Os Hillman
06-13-2010

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'" - 1 Peter 5:5b

I'll never forget the first time I discovered what a feeling was. It was in my early forties. "Surely not!" you may be thinking. Yes, it is true. Since then, I have discovered many men still live in this condition. It took an older mentor to help me understand the difference between information and a feeling. Wives are frustrated because their husbands share information, but not their feelings. They want to know what is going on inside their man. The fact is, most men have not been taught to identify feelings, much less how to share them. It is something that men must learn to do because it is not a natural trait. If they do share their feelings, society often portrays them as weak. No man willingly wants to be portrayed as weak.

In order to become an effective friend and leader, one must learn to be vulnerable with others and develop an ability to share feelings. It is a vital step to becoming a real person with whom others can connect emotionally. This is not easy to do if your parents did not teach you to share your emotional life with others. Emotional vulnerability is especially hard for men. Author Dr. Larry Crabb states,

Men who as boys felt neglected by their dads often remain distant from their own children. The sins of fathers are passed on to children, often through the dynamic of self-protection. It hurts to be neglected, and it creates questions about our value to others. So to avoid feeling the sting of further rejection, we refuse to give that part of ourselves we fear might once again be received with indifference. When our approach to life revolves around discipline, commitment, and knowledge [which the Greek influence teaches us] but runs from feeling the hurt of unmet longings that come from a lack of deeper relationships, then our efforts to love will be marked more by required action than by liberating passion. We will be known as reliable, but not involved. Honest friends will report that they enjoy being with us, but have trouble feeling close. Even our best friends (including spouses) will feel guarded around us, a little tense and vaguely distant. It's not uncommon for Christian leaders to have no real friends. [Larry Crabb, Inside Out (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Navpress, n.d.), 98-99.]

If this describes you, why not begin on a new journey of opening up your life to others in a way that others can see who you really are? It might be scary at first, but as you grow in this area, you will find new freedom in your life. Then, others will more readily connect with you.

Carter/Nixon President

President Obama has much going for him.

He's smart. He's a good speaker. He looks good. He's from Chicago. He broke the Color Barrier.

BUT..he has things against him:
...
He is inexperienced as a leader in effective governance (which he demonstrates daily). He has surrounded himself with unwise and in a few cases evil advisers. His worldview (ultra left) is way out of sync with the majority of Americans (center right). He lets pride (Hubris) get in the way of his leadership ability. He doesn't seem to be able to sort out the crazy voices all around him.

Barack Obama is a combination Carter/Nixon President. The worst of both.