What do you expect from such simple creatures?
Thier last name stays put. The garage is all thiers.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.
They can be President. but can never be pregnant.
They can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. They can wear NO shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell them the truth.
The world is thier urinal.
They never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
They don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.
People never stare at their chest when they are talking to them.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle thier feet.
One mood all the time. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
They know stuff about tanks.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
They can open all their own jars.
They get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite them, he or she can still be their friend.
Thier underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. They almost never have strap problems in public. They are unable to see wrinkles in thier clothes.
Everything on thier face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. They only have to shave thier face and neck.
They can play with toys all thier life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons. They can wear shorts no matter how thier legs look.
They can 'do' thier nails with a pocket knife.
They have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
They can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.
No wonder men are happier.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Where Does All Our Money Go?
Well the biggest taker of our funds is taxes. We are taxed on everything, everyday, everywhere.
My husband and I are in the 25% for income taxes, meaning that for every dollar we make 25 cents goes to the federal government. And 6.84% goes to the state income tax.
We also own a home so we pay property tax of 26.83%.
We pay sales tax on items we buy at 7%. FYI Sales taxes also encompass money paid to the government for tolls, licenses, and other minute fees.
So let’s add this up:
Federal income tax: 25%
State Income tax: 6.84%
Property tax: 26.83%
Sales Tax: 7%
Total: 65.67% at some time or another this is what we will pay out in taxes per year. Or as the Bureau of Economic Research study says on average 40% of American money goes to taxes each year. Like other americans we pay more then our fair share.
Now go invest that 60 cents and the government will tax you again.
Want to know how the Federal government spends you hard earned dollar on? Then read Where Your Federal Income Tax Goes
Did you read it? So are you now wonder were did the almost 12 trillion in debt go? Well it went nowhere and to be totally honestly there is no good or logical reason for being distraught over the US national debt, because it is impossible to pay off the debt.
But how can that be? Our government is doing that right now? What is so ironic about the National debt is it is a debt made from money that does not exists. The US gets it's money from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve calculates the supply of money from the current bills and currency in circulation, funds held in banks and in CD, money markets and mutual funds etc.
But what you probably don't know is our financial systems are based on fractional reserve banking. What the hell is that you say?? Example: I deposit $100.00 into my local bank. They don’t keep my $100 in the bank. They keep only a fraction of it 10% (assuming the required reserve is 10%) and lend the rest to someone else ($90. If that person then deposits that money, then their bank keeps a fraction and lends out the rest ($81). As this process continues a bank can turn $100 into $1000 ($100+$90+$81+$72.50 = $1000), when the reality is $100 is all that really existed. and if some banks have no reserve requirement at all, I think you get the picture. Contrary to what we all believe you CAN make money out of thin air.
This lovely system we have created as made it so the only way to get more money is to create more debt which makes it worse. If you owe more money than has ever been created how can you pay it back? You can’t. So the odd saying “money isn’t worth the paper it was printed on” rings true.
Unless you are willing to speak up and demand the system be changed, you might as well quit complaining about the National debt, because it is impossible to pay it off!!
My husband and I are in the 25% for income taxes, meaning that for every dollar we make 25 cents goes to the federal government. And 6.84% goes to the state income tax.
We also own a home so we pay property tax of 26.83%.
We pay sales tax on items we buy at 7%. FYI Sales taxes also encompass money paid to the government for tolls, licenses, and other minute fees.
So let’s add this up:
Federal income tax: 25%
State Income tax: 6.84%
Property tax: 26.83%
Sales Tax: 7%
Total: 65.67% at some time or another this is what we will pay out in taxes per year. Or as the Bureau of Economic Research study says on average 40% of American money goes to taxes each year. Like other americans we pay more then our fair share.
Now go invest that 60 cents and the government will tax you again.
Want to know how the Federal government spends you hard earned dollar on? Then read Where Your Federal Income Tax Goes
Did you read it? So are you now wonder were did the almost 12 trillion in debt go? Well it went nowhere and to be totally honestly there is no good or logical reason for being distraught over the US national debt, because it is impossible to pay off the debt.
But how can that be? Our government is doing that right now? What is so ironic about the National debt is it is a debt made from money that does not exists. The US gets it's money from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve calculates the supply of money from the current bills and currency in circulation, funds held in banks and in CD, money markets and mutual funds etc.
But what you probably don't know is our financial systems are based on fractional reserve banking. What the hell is that you say?? Example: I deposit $100.00 into my local bank. They don’t keep my $100 in the bank. They keep only a fraction of it 10% (assuming the required reserve is 10%) and lend the rest to someone else ($90. If that person then deposits that money, then their bank keeps a fraction and lends out the rest ($81). As this process continues a bank can turn $100 into $1000 ($100+$90+$81+$72.50 = $1000), when the reality is $100 is all that really existed. and if some banks have no reserve requirement at all, I think you get the picture. Contrary to what we all believe you CAN make money out of thin air.
This lovely system we have created as made it so the only way to get more money is to create more debt which makes it worse. If you owe more money than has ever been created how can you pay it back? You can’t. So the odd saying “money isn’t worth the paper it was printed on” rings true.
Unless you are willing to speak up and demand the system be changed, you might as well quit complaining about the National debt, because it is impossible to pay it off!!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Ruthless
For those amongst us who sincerely care about children, the time has come to be ruthless.
We must be ruthless against the poverty that causes children to go to bed hungry and awaken to barren cupboards.
We must be ruthless against bureaucracies that cause children to be denied basic medical and dental care.
We must be ruthless against politics that promote unconscionable inequities in educational opportunities for children.
We must be ruthless against the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children.
We must be ruthless against businesses and consumers who benefit unfairly from the labors of children.
We must be ruthless against media that glorify violence, hatred, and intolerance for children to model.
We must be ruthless against industries which profit from weapons that blindly injure, maim, and kill innocent children.
We must be ruthless against governments and groups that turn their children into warriors.
We must be ruthless against forces that pressure children beyond the breaking point, robbing them of their childhood and extinguishing all hopes and dreams.
We must be ruthless against our own ignorance, arrogance, and indifference.
For if we are not ruthless, we have truly lost our compassion.
James Squires, PhD.
We must be ruthless against the poverty that causes children to go to bed hungry and awaken to barren cupboards.
We must be ruthless against bureaucracies that cause children to be denied basic medical and dental care.
We must be ruthless against politics that promote unconscionable inequities in educational opportunities for children.
We must be ruthless against the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children.
We must be ruthless against businesses and consumers who benefit unfairly from the labors of children.
We must be ruthless against media that glorify violence, hatred, and intolerance for children to model.
We must be ruthless against industries which profit from weapons that blindly injure, maim, and kill innocent children.
We must be ruthless against governments and groups that turn their children into warriors.
We must be ruthless against forces that pressure children beyond the breaking point, robbing them of their childhood and extinguishing all hopes and dreams.
We must be ruthless against our own ignorance, arrogance, and indifference.
For if we are not ruthless, we have truly lost our compassion.
James Squires, PhD.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Bad Education, Bad!
You may think that education of our youth is not your responsibility because you don’t have children or your children are grown and no longer at home.
Education is every ones responsibility. Next time you are out walking in a park, take a look at those children around you. Those are our future nurses, police, doctors, mechanics, etc. I don’t know about you but when I am ready for the nursing home I want the best educated person tending to my needs. If I should ever need heart surgery I want the best doctor performing it. When my car breaks down I want the best skilled person working on it. Don’t you?
We take for granted that if our children are going to school and getting A’s & B’s everything is ok. Is it OK that only 79% of Nebraska students graduate from high school and out of that 79% only 32% have enough education to get into college? NO, that is not OK!! We live in a college town that cannot produce students who can go on to college. What do you think is going to happen to our economy if we continue to believe that our current public education is OK?
Lincoln Public Schools website says that “Education systems in the capital city provide employers with a ready supply of skilled personnel.” I wish this statement was 100% true but it is not. Too many of our youth do not even know how to make change while working as a cashier or do not have enough writing skills to fill out a resume. The dropout rate has only increased over the last 10 years. I have not found anything on LPS websites that says how they are going to change the dropout rate or the low scores of our youth in math and science. LPS is run by highly educated individuals, they must know how economics work, so why haven’t they changed?
Education here and across the USA is about the adults, it is about the teachers, it is about tenure, it is about money. LPS website says more about the opportunity it gives to teachers then they do about opportunities they offer to your child. I am not saying all teachers are bad, because there are good teachers out there that want children to get the best education they can give them however, they like our children are stuck in a system that does not work. What incentive does a good teacher have to excel when their pay is the same as the teacher across the hall who says, “I get paid if I teach or not.” The pay is set by the teachers union and it doesn’t allow schools to compensate good teachers. So as a good teacher it can be very frustrating to be working across the hall from a bad teacher who gets paid the same as you for doing less work. One might then ask why do teachers join the union. The answer could very well be that some schools have a contract with a teacher union agreeing to only hire union teachers or when new teachers are hired they are asked and sometime coerced into joining a teachers union.
As parents and tax payers you have a right to know how LPS handles bad teachers. I strongly urge you to find out. I think you will be shocked at what you are told (if you are told anything). Most teachers are protected by a teachers union which has made it almost impossible for a school to get rid of a bad teacher. In short this means if a teacher is verbally or physically abusing your child they are probably going to get away with it. Teachers Unions have been allowed to go beyond their intended purpose and have stretched their arms into politics. As the old saying goes money is power, unions money is part of our city’s education committee. Union money pays to get bad teachers off the hook for giving our children a bad education and our government lets it happen.
When I was in high school I had an English teacher who came to class and told us, “read this book and be quiet”. He would then leave the class room and go to his office to smoke. My parents, including several other parents, wanted the issue dealt with. It never was he continued to teach. That was my freshman year; the teacher was still there when I graduated.
Do you know that Nebraska has been unsuccessful in passing a charter school law? In the last 10 to 12 years there have been a few attempts, but none that have even made it out of the education committee and on to the senate floor for a vote. The bills that have been submitted so far would not have allowed for a strong law that would give the kind of autonomy needed to produce effective charter schools. Why shouldn’t a parent be allowed to choose the best school for their child? Not allowing charter schools is wrong. The number of students enrolled in U.S. charter schools more than tripled from 340,000 to 1.3 million between the school years of 1999-2000 to 2007-2008. As of February 2010, 40 states and the District of Columbia have operating charter schools. So why doesn’t Nebraska allow charter schools as an opportunity for our children?
Charter schools scare the unions because they work, because charter schools are focused on the student and increasing achievement for students. Charter schools also have performance measures for their teachers. However, charter schools can only teach so many students, so they are required by law to hold a lottery every year to fill student slots. A single mom working two jobs, trying to keep her son out of the gangs hopes that luck is on their side and his number will be picked. Getting a good education shouldn’t be the luck of the draw. If charter schools had the kind of money the teachers union does to spread around during election year I am sure they would get a charter school law passed.
Oh I am sure you will hear from the “powers that be” that there is no data out there that proves charter schools work. There is data out there , the government officials and the teachers unions have decided that data doesn’t exist. They have the ostrich mentality of burying your head in the sand. If you can’t see it, it can’t be true.
Large technology and engineer companies have had to look over seas for highly educated individuals because they could not find the skilled labor they need right here in the USA. For the last 30 years educators and law makers have only been concern with the status quo. We need to change our education system. Our world is changing around us and our schools need to change too.
Our children are our future if we don't start giving them the best education possible, then what future do any of us have?
Reference:
http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/
http://www.thecartelmovie.com/
http://www.lps.org/hr/recruitment/our_community.html
http://www.publiccharters.org/node/981
Education is every ones responsibility. Next time you are out walking in a park, take a look at those children around you. Those are our future nurses, police, doctors, mechanics, etc. I don’t know about you but when I am ready for the nursing home I want the best educated person tending to my needs. If I should ever need heart surgery I want the best doctor performing it. When my car breaks down I want the best skilled person working on it. Don’t you?
We take for granted that if our children are going to school and getting A’s & B’s everything is ok. Is it OK that only 79% of Nebraska students graduate from high school and out of that 79% only 32% have enough education to get into college? NO, that is not OK!! We live in a college town that cannot produce students who can go on to college. What do you think is going to happen to our economy if we continue to believe that our current public education is OK?
Lincoln Public Schools website says that “Education systems in the capital city provide employers with a ready supply of skilled personnel.” I wish this statement was 100% true but it is not. Too many of our youth do not even know how to make change while working as a cashier or do not have enough writing skills to fill out a resume. The dropout rate has only increased over the last 10 years. I have not found anything on LPS websites that says how they are going to change the dropout rate or the low scores of our youth in math and science. LPS is run by highly educated individuals, they must know how economics work, so why haven’t they changed?
Education here and across the USA is about the adults, it is about the teachers, it is about tenure, it is about money. LPS website says more about the opportunity it gives to teachers then they do about opportunities they offer to your child. I am not saying all teachers are bad, because there are good teachers out there that want children to get the best education they can give them however, they like our children are stuck in a system that does not work. What incentive does a good teacher have to excel when their pay is the same as the teacher across the hall who says, “I get paid if I teach or not.” The pay is set by the teachers union and it doesn’t allow schools to compensate good teachers. So as a good teacher it can be very frustrating to be working across the hall from a bad teacher who gets paid the same as you for doing less work. One might then ask why do teachers join the union. The answer could very well be that some schools have a contract with a teacher union agreeing to only hire union teachers or when new teachers are hired they are asked and sometime coerced into joining a teachers union.
As parents and tax payers you have a right to know how LPS handles bad teachers. I strongly urge you to find out. I think you will be shocked at what you are told (if you are told anything). Most teachers are protected by a teachers union which has made it almost impossible for a school to get rid of a bad teacher. In short this means if a teacher is verbally or physically abusing your child they are probably going to get away with it. Teachers Unions have been allowed to go beyond their intended purpose and have stretched their arms into politics. As the old saying goes money is power, unions money is part of our city’s education committee. Union money pays to get bad teachers off the hook for giving our children a bad education and our government lets it happen.
When I was in high school I had an English teacher who came to class and told us, “read this book and be quiet”. He would then leave the class room and go to his office to smoke. My parents, including several other parents, wanted the issue dealt with. It never was he continued to teach. That was my freshman year; the teacher was still there when I graduated.
Do you know that Nebraska has been unsuccessful in passing a charter school law? In the last 10 to 12 years there have been a few attempts, but none that have even made it out of the education committee and on to the senate floor for a vote. The bills that have been submitted so far would not have allowed for a strong law that would give the kind of autonomy needed to produce effective charter schools. Why shouldn’t a parent be allowed to choose the best school for their child? Not allowing charter schools is wrong. The number of students enrolled in U.S. charter schools more than tripled from 340,000 to 1.3 million between the school years of 1999-2000 to 2007-2008. As of February 2010, 40 states and the District of Columbia have operating charter schools. So why doesn’t Nebraska allow charter schools as an opportunity for our children?
Charter schools scare the unions because they work, because charter schools are focused on the student and increasing achievement for students. Charter schools also have performance measures for their teachers. However, charter schools can only teach so many students, so they are required by law to hold a lottery every year to fill student slots. A single mom working two jobs, trying to keep her son out of the gangs hopes that luck is on their side and his number will be picked. Getting a good education shouldn’t be the luck of the draw. If charter schools had the kind of money the teachers union does to spread around during election year I am sure they would get a charter school law passed.
Oh I am sure you will hear from the “powers that be” that there is no data out there that proves charter schools work. There is data out there , the government officials and the teachers unions have decided that data doesn’t exist. They have the ostrich mentality of burying your head in the sand. If you can’t see it, it can’t be true.
Large technology and engineer companies have had to look over seas for highly educated individuals because they could not find the skilled labor they need right here in the USA. For the last 30 years educators and law makers have only been concern with the status quo. We need to change our education system. Our world is changing around us and our schools need to change too.
Our children are our future if we don't start giving them the best education possible, then what future do any of us have?
Reference:
http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/
http://www.thecartelmovie.com/
http://www.lps.org/hr/recruitment/our_community.html
http://www.publiccharters.org/node/981
Saturday, February 19, 2011
1 thought
For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin — real life, but there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one.
-Souza
-Souza
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
So Called Techies
I found myself needing to rip this out about "So Called Techies". Just because you figured out how the wide variety of gadgets around your smart phone, pads, laptops etc work doesn’t automatically make you a techie. You are just a skilled user and nothing more.
Until you can actually describe how any one of them work, DO NOT tell me you are a techie. A trained monkey can run any one of those apps on your smart phone. Ignorance is bliss shouldn’t be part of technology but it is. So called techies tend to belief not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it. Thinking they are so smart just because they read about technology or because they have a smart phone that does all these fancy tricks makes them a techie! UGH!
Create an App, write a program or teach a computer class do something more with your so called knowledge besides twiddling your thumbs on your phone.
So what gives me the right to jump on my soap box and give the “so called techies” a bitch slapping. Because I can and because “true” techies don’t brag about what they know. “True” techies ask their own questions and find their own answers. “True” techies don’t believe everything they read. They analyze then decide and sometime wait for the results to show them. “True” techies know how to think outside the social media box.
You are not a techie because you can build a computer either. Building a computer has become as easy as the instruction in a Lego box. Of course it would be different if you had the skills to use a breadboard to build a basic chipset. If you don’t know what the hell a breadboard is look it up.
Most so called techies have no idea what a tcp ip stack is or even how to write one. That cell phones comes from a generation of radio designs. Oh and btw ”cell” in cell phone has more to do with the placement of the towers then it has to do with the phone itself. So called techies can’t even explain how a modem works. Let alone what one is.
I have been in computer technology for over 23 years and I myself do not call myself a techie because being a techie is a demotion to knowing how to run a smart phone app.
And I am a hell of a lot more then that!
Until you can actually describe how any one of them work, DO NOT tell me you are a techie. A trained monkey can run any one of those apps on your smart phone. Ignorance is bliss shouldn’t be part of technology but it is. So called techies tend to belief not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it. Thinking they are so smart just because they read about technology or because they have a smart phone that does all these fancy tricks makes them a techie! UGH!
Create an App, write a program or teach a computer class do something more with your so called knowledge besides twiddling your thumbs on your phone.
So what gives me the right to jump on my soap box and give the “so called techies” a bitch slapping. Because I can and because “true” techies don’t brag about what they know. “True” techies ask their own questions and find their own answers. “True” techies don’t believe everything they read. They analyze then decide and sometime wait for the results to show them. “True” techies know how to think outside the social media box.
You are not a techie because you can build a computer either. Building a computer has become as easy as the instruction in a Lego box. Of course it would be different if you had the skills to use a breadboard to build a basic chipset. If you don’t know what the hell a breadboard is look it up.
Most so called techies have no idea what a tcp ip stack is or even how to write one. That cell phones comes from a generation of radio designs. Oh and btw ”cell” in cell phone has more to do with the placement of the towers then it has to do with the phone itself. So called techies can’t even explain how a modem works. Let alone what one is.
I have been in computer technology for over 23 years and I myself do not call myself a techie because being a techie is a demotion to knowing how to run a smart phone app.
And I am a hell of a lot more then that!
Monday, February 14, 2011
No technology for 24 hours?
Some have asked the question what would happen to the world if there was no technology for 24 hours? Technology is the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs. Most people think of technology in terms of computers, software, cell phones, apps, aircraft, viagra, microwave ovens etc. Technology is not just simple tangible items. Technology also includes knowledge engineering know how, technical skills and a degree of expertise. Technology is the study of the natural world.
So with that said, what would happen if we had 24 hours of no technology? Nothing would happen, 24 hours with no technology is an illogical question. Theoretically it cannot happen unless the goal is to remove humans from the earth. Then you don’t need me to tell you how that would be History channel has already done that just watch Welcome to Earth Population 0.
Yes I am well aware some people out there would say oh no you are wrong, it would be chaos!! How would it be chaos? Think about that question “What would happen if we had 24 hours of no technology”? Right where you are right now think about the items around you, think of how they where made
a pen, paper, technology poof gone,
phone, electricity, refrigerator, technology poof gone.
the wood, nails, sheet rock & paint in your home, technology poof all gone.
Grocery & Clothing stores gone, canned food gone, blue jeans gone and so forth and so on.
If stripped of all our technology we will be left standing in the middle of nature buck naked not knowing what to do.
Not every question put to women & men requires a dooms day scenario, so please try to think outside your media fear induced propaganda box.
So with that said, what would happen if we had 24 hours of no technology? Nothing would happen, 24 hours with no technology is an illogical question. Theoretically it cannot happen unless the goal is to remove humans from the earth. Then you don’t need me to tell you how that would be History channel has already done that just watch Welcome to Earth Population 0.
Yes I am well aware some people out there would say oh no you are wrong, it would be chaos!! How would it be chaos? Think about that question “What would happen if we had 24 hours of no technology”? Right where you are right now think about the items around you, think of how they where made
a pen, paper, technology poof gone,
phone, electricity, refrigerator, technology poof gone.
the wood, nails, sheet rock & paint in your home, technology poof all gone.
Grocery & Clothing stores gone, canned food gone, blue jeans gone and so forth and so on.
If stripped of all our technology we will be left standing in the middle of nature buck naked not knowing what to do.
Not every question put to women & men requires a dooms day scenario, so please try to think outside your media fear induced propaganda box.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand".
I can't remember where this came from but I think it is worth sharing.
Learning Technology does not obviate the need for work on the part of the learner. It is not yet possible to download knowledge and experience directly into the brain. To understand something we must engage with it, a process which requires effort.
Learning Technology does not obviate the need for work on the part of the educator. Delivering content electronically does not automatically transform it into an effective aid to learning. In fact what might have been a very good aid to learning in its original form may lose its merits through inappropriate "electronification". The most effective use of learning technology requires considerable planning and effort on the part of the educator to best exploit the strengths of the target media.
Learning Technology does not obviate the need for work on the part of the learner. It is not yet possible to download knowledge and experience directly into the brain. To understand something we must engage with it, a process which requires effort.
Learning Technology does not obviate the need for work on the part of the educator. Delivering content electronically does not automatically transform it into an effective aid to learning. In fact what might have been a very good aid to learning in its original form may lose its merits through inappropriate "electronification". The most effective use of learning technology requires considerable planning and effort on the part of the educator to best exploit the strengths of the target media.
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