Getting It Right

I certainly don't expect everybody to know this, not even residents of Flint.  And, it's a reasonable mistake to make.  Today's Free Press, in a caption on the front page, reads, "...Flint, called Vehicle City for its historic ties to General Motors."  WRONG!  Flint was called "Vehicle City" long before Billy Durant started GM.  Again, I don't expect many outside of Flint, and some inside, to realized this.  But the Free Press should be able to get it right.  I know it's a little thing, I suppose, but it's also symbolic of the current state of our LameStream media--they get a lot of things wrong, willfully or through ignorance.

BTW, Flint was so-called because of it's 19th Century thriving carriage/buggy and wagon industries. It was also nationally known for cigar box manufacturing.

A really good letter-to-the-editor in the Detroit News yesterday.  The writer nailed who the real losers in the college tuition/student loan debacle are.  They are the hard-working middle class students.  He did note how many of the college administrators and gov't bureaucrats have referred to those middle class students as "privileged."  Let's see, because the federal gov't is now the prime lender in student loans, colleges just jack up the tuition/room and board.  The wealthy don't have to really worry about those increases; they have enough to pay.  The lower classes don't have to worry about them either; they get the need-based scholarships.  The "privileged" students of middle class parents get soaked and socked, in multiple way.  First, they don't qualify for the scholarships because their parents make too much money.  Yeah, right.  Who are these ding-a-lings who think that paying $30,000 or more for a year of college out of middle class annual earnings of say, $64,000 doesn't qualify as "need?"  (OK, I picked that salary because that's the most I ever earned as a teacher.)  How many middle class families make less than that?  If I recall correctly, the "middle class" is identified by incomes ranging from about $35,000 to $100,000.  Now, subtract $30,000 from those incomes.  Second, already cranking up tuition and room and board (not to mention the ubiquitous "fees"), the colleges also must cover the "need-based" scholarship monies.  So, up goes the tuition, etc. again.  And, guess who pays?  Yep, those "privileged" students.  Oh, they don't really pay, at least not up front.  They go get the loans, now monopolized by the federal gov't.  Offhand, there appears to be something wrong with this.  (Yes, I'm being very sarcastic!)  Again, it's the people who've done all the right things who get the raw deals.  And we wonder what appeal Donald Trump has??????

Boy, an op-ed in the FP the News this AM doesn't know how to play by the rules, not at all.  It's title is "Assigning blame in Flint."  Doesn't this editor know that we don't assign blame any longer; we don't hold people responsible or accountable, not even when things go horribly wrong.  We "just move on," "get over it," "don't point fingers," etc.  Yep, how great it is that the EM appointed by the governor who led to this Flint water disaster then was appointed by the governor to be the EM of the Detroit Public Schools.

I see several state legislators have intro'd bills to punish teachers taking "sick-outs."  Yep, I'm sure they are really, really concerned about the education Detroit students are receiving--or not receiving due to the sick-outs.  Again I ask, where were these concerned legislators when the rats were running rampant, the black mold was growing, students and teachers were getting mugged and raped and robbed by gunpoint?   Maybe we should let loose a few hundred rats in the state capitol and let these legislators work under the same conditions?  And, if they miss days, punish them the same way they seek to punish the teachers engaging in sick-outs?  Right.  There are rules for us and rules for them.

I enjoy my weekend newspapers mostly for the crossword puzzles.  I like the Sunday NY Times Crossword a lot, although it seems to have become quite a bit easier the past few years.  But the Saturday Stumper is my favorite.  It's harder, very difficult.  Often, it includes tricky clues and answers.  Sometimes I have to resort to the computer to find answers.  No, that's not "cheating," not like Bill Clinton allegedly used to do.  (Gee, imagine Clinton actually cheating?  I know; it's hard to believe.)  I look up the answers I can't get so I can learn as well as complete the puzzle.  And, along the way, I learn other things, too.  Clinton supposedly called the NY Times 900 number to get the answers (not researching himself) and then bragging to reporters how he finished the puzzle.

In that same Presidential vein, I read last week that Obama has told Cabinet members that "I can do your jobs [as Cabinet secretaries] better than any of you," or some variation of that.  The article cited only one Cabinet/former Cabinet member for direct quotes.  The others were anonymous, but confirmed and corroborated what former Sec Def Robert Gates said.  Among other things, and he was being interviewed to promote his new book not what he branched off about, he said Obama always "thinks he's the smartest man in the room."  I've read, over the years, the same claim.  And, I wonder, "Is Obama delusional?"  Would that be "self-delusional?"  I know he's a narcissist, a very big one.  But I have some experience with an Ivy League education and I can't for the life of me figure out how he supposedly has degrees from Columbia and Harvard.

One of my AC teammates asked last week, something I had thought after seeing the scores, how the Amherst basketball team could whup Wesleyan  by 27 points in Amherst on Sat and then lose by 26 two days later on Mon in Middletown (CT).  Strange indeed.