City Budget Agreement Avoids Layoffs

Perhaps the earthquake helped them come up with robbing from the pension fund to avoid lay offs?

"The agreement fills a $54 million budget hole without anyone losing his or her job. It borrows millions of dollars from the workers compensation fund and emergency reserve accounts. It also relies on a sharp reduction in police overtime, as well as a tax amnesty program that may or may not produce the desired one-time revenue amount."

Story Here

Earthquake tremors felt in Cincinnati

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake in central Indiana was felt in Cincinnati. Phone calls flooded several sheriff's offices in Indiana. Yet Cincinnati city council continues to find ways not to pass a budget and will most likely still cut firefighters and police officers. Imagine what it would be like when a stronger quake hits Cincinnati.

Link Here

Hysteria

Hysteria, according to the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary, means "behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess". Ashley Smithwick, 17, of Sanford, was suspended from Southern Lee High School in October after school personnel found a small paring knife in her lunchbox. She was an athlete and academic standout. Her only crime is while school officials were snooping for drugs, they found the pairing knife. She wasn't even brining it to school, her father had grabbed the wrong lunch box and it was his that had the knife. Can we all please just relax? Why ruin a young lady's academic and professional potential but something so ridiculous? In a previous blog, I wrote about Governor Rendell's concern that we are becoming a nation of "wusses". I would add that we are becoming a bunch of hysterical "wusses" incapable of making rational judgments.

Link Here

Vikings-Eagles postponement irks Pennsylvania governor

While this is a sports related story and I blog about homeland security and international affairs, Governor Rendell made two important observations. First, the United States has become so consensus focused that decisions are always made by someone further up the chain the it is like a bunch of wusses are running things. The governor and mayor were in the best positions to make the decision yet the NFL commissioner called off the game (I suspect more for reasons of loss of revenue than concerns for safety). The other point the governor attempted to make about China's determination to dominate falls on deaf ears because he resorted so stereotypes. China is not sitting idly by while the US comes to terms with its mid-life crisis. China would surely have dug out the stadium, albeit with soldiers or citizens forced to work. The point being is not the politics but the mindset. The Chinese have set themselves on a long-term strategy to become the next superpower. They are approaching both economically (please note how much of Africa is now owned by the Chinese) as well as strategically (China has taken over manufacturing from other developed nations). China owns the debt for the European and American economies. Yes, it was just a football game but Rendell was right on. China is marching unflinchingly towards world domination and while the US argues about cancelling a football game.

Link Here

Chapel Hill Campus Takes On Grade Inflation

Chapel Hill is taking a near impossible task, what does an "A" really mean? The article only begins to scratch at the surface of the problem. Does an "A" in English 101 equate to an "A" in organic chemistry or differential equations? Letter or numerical grades face an inherent limitation; trying to capture the sum of a student's work during a semester or quarter. Professors uses a variety of techniques to evaluate the student's learning but not all tests or essays are the same. Each will be different depending on the particular style and tastes of the professor. Student's performance may be enhance by previous coursework in the topic. An "A" in one school in say calculus may require much more work in one college than another. Some professors simply refuse to believe any student is capable of mastering their course. All of these factors mean coming up with some kind of grading standard is futile. We need to focus more on demonstrated ability, not just their final GPA. Look at sports. Athletes are subjected to the greatest amount of quantification of any class of human being. We know everything from their physical statistics, to their performance in various skills (such as running, jumping or how much they can lift), what their performance in the same sport was throughout high school, college and the pros. Their record is much more than simply a listing of wins and losses, it creates a picture of the whole athlete and gives a fairly accurate prediction of performance. College graduates are more than simply their GPA.

Link Here

US missiles hit Pakistan borderlands

The article caught my interest because I find it difficult to believe 21st Century missiles hit anything other than what they are aimed at. If US missiles are striking targets in Pakistan, it is because they are being aimed at Pakistani targets. There has been evidence for some time of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan yet much like Baghdad Bob, everyone is in denial of the obvious. Pakistan is one of the least transparent allies the United States has ever worked with. The motivation to allow US and Coalition forces to operate from Pakistan has very little to do with the war on terrorism and much more to do with first keeping Musharraf and now Zadari in office. The Pakistani government condemns the US strikes while at the same time enjoying the intelligence it gains from these attacks. Pakistan blusters but has never seriously threatened to ask US forces to leave. The presence of US forces helps the government to ward of the Talaban as well as reduce any threats from India. The situation in Afghanistan is going nowhere fast and the number of causalities has risen dramatically in the last few months. Afghanistan is very much like Vietnam with an enemy that is not a military force an operates from a network of underground facilities (caves really). Neither President Bush nor President Obama have identified an exit strategy for Afghanistan. As the US begins striking more targets in Pakistan, the war has to potential to spill into a more regional conflict. With Iran and North Korea further distracting US foreign policy, I see that next few years becoming increasingly violent.

Link Here

Food Sovereignty

The US Attorney General's Office and DHS both issued assessments that our food supply could be the next target for terrorism. Tommy Thompson first sounded this alarm while he was the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Given the reliance of the United States on mega-farms, migrant workers and hub & spoke distribution centers it becomes difficult to properly secure our food. Vermont apparently is not sitting back on this issue and has written a Resolution of Food Sovereignty;

WHEREAS All people are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and

WHEREAS Food is human sustenance and is the fundamental prerequisite to life; and

WHEREAS The basis of human sustenance rests on the ability of all people to save seed, grow, process, consume and exchange food and farm products; and

WHEREAS We the People of Vermont, have an obligation to protect these rights as is the Common and Natural Law; and in recognition of the State’s proud agricultural heritage; and the necessity of agricultural, ecological and economic diversity and sustainability to a free and healthy Society;

THEREFORE, Be it resolved, that We The People, stand on our rights under the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution and reject such Federal decrees, statutes, regulations or corporate practices that threaten our basic human right to save seed, grow, process, consume and exchange food and farm products within the State of Vermont; and,

Be it further resolved, that We The People, shall resist any and all infringements upon these rights, from whatever sources that are contrary to the rights of the People of the State of Vermont.