Friday, April 15, 2011

Fri Musings

I still have this feeling of some impending dread/doom that's on the way. I can't shake it. It isn't a pleasant feeling. A little more than a week of it so far. All kinds of interesting things to read yesterday and all week. I see where the novelist S. King has said he makes so much money and "only pays 28%" of it in taxes, but "should pay more." I think he's trying to say that all rich people "should pay more." He's certainly entitled to his opinion; this is America (although to far too many people, it seems the only opinions to which one is entitled are those that agree with theirs). But, two things: one, he can certainly "pay more." He can voluntarily give more of his money to the government. Hmmmm.... I wonder why he doesn't just do that, pay more. He can, you know--and, no doubt, so does he. I wonder why he doesn't; wouldn't that be acting on his "principles?" I think I understand, which leads me to two. Just because he thinks he should "pay more" doesn't mean everyone--or even those as rich or richer--should. He shouldn't be able to say how other people spend their money. They earned it and should be able to do with it as they please. After all, this is America (oh, I forgot!). Great line in the WSJ about Obama's speech the other night about his "budget proposal." I write in quotation marks because he didn't really have a "budget proposal." The WSJ wrote, that even at the levels of dishonesty in Washington today, Obama's speech was as dishonest as any. And some columnist this AM, I forget which source, called Obama a "compulsive liar" and a "sociopath," giving definitions and examples. These remind me of a line I read a few weeks ago, from a column about Obama's chances at re-election (which the guy thought were pretty good because....) "there is no level of dishonesty to which the Obama adminstration won't stoop." And we sit and take it. Filling out my taxes, I just keep wondering. One form asked me to fill in income I earned in Flint. Then, a couple lines down it asked for income earned outside of Flint. Then, a couple lines down I had to subtract the income earned outside of Flint. Huh????? Interesting how, once again, one of the gurus of educational reform (a former state super of schools) had a lot of "ideas" about changes, but neglected some common sense, tried and true ideas. He was right on the money about the ridiculous levels of testing, that, he noted, only improve the bottom lines of test companies. (Need we go into the cheating, dishonesty in reporting, etc. by the schools?) And he prays to the gods of technology. I'm not at all convinced that technology improves education, be it online diplomas, virtual classes, or even things like BlackBoard. But he never mentioned attracting people who actually know what they are doing (obviously increased pay hasn't worked) or at least listening to them instead of the fools being listened to now. He never mentioned letting (or forcing) these good people to establish high standards (as opposed to the education establishment's "setting the bar high," since the ed est is "just kidding"). Until I hear people talking about the last two or three sentences, I will likely dismiss them as the last in a long line of loons. I continue to be amazed at how so many political "leaders" (and I say that fully tongue in cheek), esp on the Dem side, still insist on rewarding undesirable behavior and punishing hard work, effort, ingenuity, and success. Of course, they mostly talk the talk and never walk the walk. That is, they don't ever give up their own wealth. They just want to take others' money. I wonder if they even know what the word "hypocrite" means????? Out.

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