In her own back yard

Condi Rice was a Professor at Stanford University, a world traveler, a news analyst, an author, but most importantly for her, the daughter of two educators who sacrificed for her education, piano lessons, and her involvement in sports like skating and tennis. So she was shocked to discover when asked to deliver an elementary school graduation address that the ceremony was elaborate because 70% of the children would not finish high school. She was embarrassed that she'd lived in Palo Alto for a decade and knew little about the community.

"In 1991, Peninsula philanthropist Susan Ford and then Stanford University Professor Dr. Condoleezza Rice co-founded the Center for a New Generation, an innovative after-school academic enrichment program. The goal of the program was to increase the high school graduation rate in the Ravenswood City School District by helping middle school students prepare for high school and college. To accomplish this, the program focused on core subjects including Math and Language Arts. Electives such Art and Music were offered to help students express their imagination and creativity. Since the mid-1990s, CNG has been located at the James Flood Magnet School in Menlo Park . 130 students are enrolled in the program at Flood this year.

In 1996 CNG merged with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula . Since that time, the program has continued to evolve. In recent years, 100% of graduating eighth graders have been accepted to prestigious private high schools including St. Francis, Sacred Heart, Eastside College Prep or other college matriculation focused programs in the community." Link

In her book (ch. 32) she points out that their efforts were not welcomed by the various nonprofits in East Palo Alto run by resident of the city. They were little more than job programs for the staffs of the organizations, money flowed to them from foundations and corporations, and there was little accountability. Misguided noblesse oblige, she says does little to help kids and is in fact guilt money.

Reading between the lines with Condi

Having almost finished Condoleezza Rice's memoir, Extraordinary, Ordinary People, I'm impressed and alternately bored. First, it's a remarkable story of a loving, supportive family and a dutiful daughter, an only child. Second, she's quite a name dropper, and I think has included everyone who was anyone or could become a someone or is now a has been. Maybe all autobiographies are that way--I usually read biographies. However, I think she has some subtle messages for conservatives who are so quick (like me) to criticize Barack Obama's administration.

1. Her father was obviously a powerful influence in her life, and the friends he made along the way, who sat at their kitchen table in days before public accomdations for blacks were as good as what whites had, would cause great concern if someone wanted to stir up trouble about her "associations." Her father was, however, a conservative Republican, but believed in honest, confrontational dialogue with those whose political ideas were different--i.e., radical blacks. She also numbers among her friends today many black Democrats. Based on the black Republicans I've seen on Glenn Beck's show, I'm guessing she voted for Obama. If you were black, wouldn't you in 2008, before you really understood what he was about?

2. She makes no apologies for affirmative action that most likely got her established at Stanford at a young age and before she had a strong publication record--she knows she was good enough, or better than other candidates, but she is honest about the need of the department to move ahead with minority faculty hiring.

3. She makes no apologies for the academic tenure system, in fact, calls herself a fan. Even so, she says, "it's true that university faculty since the 1960s have been overwhelmingly liberal. I strongly believe that students would be better served by a wider range of views and an environment that challenges the liberal orthodoxy that is so pervasive in universities today . . . conservative colleagues say that they simply censor themselves in political debates. I have never felt the need to do so." Odd that she doesn't see the similarity to blacks in the south who needed to submit to indignities to keep their jobs and security, nor that being a black female she has a double layer of protection against the anger and narrow mindedness of the left wing academics.

4. She notes from her early experience as a staffer in the National Security Council how many offices and agencies make decisions that could/should be made by Congress or the President. (Iran-Contra was devised and carried out by NSC.) This today is one of the big issues about the Obama government and its growing list of "czars," people appointed who have great power, but have never been vetted or confirmed and who by-pass the representative government. On p. 247, she called Brent Scowcroft "the most important man in Washington whom few Americans could identify in a photo lineup" and who wanted his NSC staff out of the limelight (something she couldn't do as a black woman).

Biblio Magazine for sale

The day had to come. I just don't have enough space to keep things I don't use or need.  I wasn't a very good collector--when I was a subscriber I always intended to buy Vol. 1, but never did.  You always think you have more time than you really do.   I have complete volumes (12 issues) of Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, plus 4 issues of Vol. 4 (discontinued at vol.4 no.4) of Biblio magazine, probably the sweetest magazine about books, manuscripts, ephemera, collectors and publishers that ever was published (issn 1087-5581).  Top quality paper and printing, too.  Will sell as a set, not individually.

I also have the first 6 issues (Fall 1994 to Spring 1997) of Counter, published by the University of Iowa Center for the Book with articles and reviews concerning the history of the book and the arts and technologies of the book.  Not sure who would be interested except libraries missing an issue or two.

NPR Announces Plan to Bolster News Coverage of State Government Nationwide

George Soros, powerful wealthy Communist, is funding NPR journalists so they can be more "open and transparent," and then Juan Williams gets fired for admitting he's occasionally fearful of men in Muslim garb. Woot! That was fast, wasn't it. Doesn't some of our tax dollars go to fund NPR (National Public Radio) and don't many of my liberal friends and relatives just hang on every word? Whew! Well, at least NPR is an equal opportunity boss--Juan Williams is black, and he occasionally appears on Fox as the liberal commentator. A real two-fer, but I want my tax money back! Dump, turn off, excoriate NPR! Not only is it taking money from an open Communist, but it is practicing employment terrorism by firing anyone who doesn't toe the standard line.

Soros also created (with help from Mrs. Clinton) Media Matters, and is giving money to Huffington Post, which really didn't need any more help to fall over the cliff, but it probably wasn't making enough money to support all those nut cakes who after all, want to be paid their fair share too.

NPR Announces Plan to Bolster News Coverage of State Government Nationwide | U.S. Programs | Open Society Foundations

Canadian killer Russell Williams

I'm guessing there are more dead women in the cold case files, but what I found surprising (AP report) is the sentence may be only 25 years? Maybe if one of them were a lesbian he could get life?

The 47-year-old, who until nine months ago was running Canada’s busiest air force base, pleaded guilty to more than 80 sex crimes, including two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual assault and dozens upon dozens of thefts of lingerie and women’s clothing. But his guilty pleas – which were so extensive it took a court clerk 34 minutes to read his crimes into the record – were a sideshow to an almost theatrical exposé of his sexual depravity. In his address to Mr. Justice Robert Scott, assistant Crown attorney Robert Morrison underscored how more than a dozen of his victims were under the age of 18, girls young enough to have dolls placed on their beds, or Tweety bird emblazoned on their underwear. In the end, the colonel’s steadfast routine of photographing and documenting every last step of his lingerie thefts was his undoing; the prosecution displayed photo after photo on two flat-screen televisions of the colonel sprawled out on numerous beds adorned with flowery duvets and wearing all manner of women’s and girl’s clothing: bras, slips, thongs and negligees. In most of the photos he is fondling himself, and in all of the photos he is wearing the same focused and determined look on his face. His method of breaking into homes varied from slipping through an open window, to picking locks, to cutting open screens.

Not only evil, but creepy. So much for harmless cross-dressing and sexual fetishes never leading anywhere.

Liberals on Conservatives

A conservative who veers to the left is "growing," "sensitive to complexities," "nuanced," and "puts public interest ahead of ideology."

A conservative must not "impose their views" on the rest of society," and is suspect as a candidate for public life if those views are formed by Christianity (but not Islam, Buddism or Judaism).

Choice is good if killing an unborn child, but bad if the child's mother wants him to attend an alternative, charter school.

Murders at Ft. Hood trial of Muslim doctor need to be on the 5th or 6th page of the newspaper; bullying of a gay teen deserves front page story.

Serial murders of women that go on for years are just a crime, but a murder of a homosexual is a hate crime.

Disinformation in marketing by a for-profit company needs congressional hearings; disinformation in inflation (3000%) of illegal abortion death statistics to get Roe v. Wade passed was necessary for the greater good.

A gay politician like Barney Frank who is crooked and lies, whose partners have loose lips, is lauded and applauded, but a gay politican who is Republican like Mark Foley is hounded out of office. If a gay Democrat harrasses a staff member, it's business as usual; if a gay Republican does it he's a pervert especially if he's been in the closet. The victim, apparently, matters not at all.

Liberals push condoms, not marriage and fatherhood, and are very critical of conservatives who push chastity as a solution to poverty.

Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle, Republican candidates who have never spent a penny of your tax dollars or declared a war lost while our soldiers are still in harm's way are kooks and radicals, but Harry Reid, Chris Coons and Nancy Pelosi, entrenched Democrats, are just fine and trustworthy.

If bank employees don't read all the documents in a foreclosure, they are evil tools of the fat cat bankers; if congressmen or the President don't read a healthcare or a banking bill of 2,000+ pages, well, that's just the cost of doing the government's business.

More to come.

Pot to Kettle--Arne Duncan to investigate "for profit" education

Don't you just love it? With most of the failing students in the U.S.A., including here in Columbus where drop-out rates are deflated and graduation rates are inflated (only include those who started 12th grade) and even our local Columbus Dispatch doesn't really investigate the figures, Arne Duncan, Obama's Secretary of Education decides that for-profit schools need to show they are worthy of taxpayer money,

"These schools and their investors benefit from billions of dollars in taxpayers subsidies, and in return, taxpayers have a right to know that all of these programs are providing solid preparation for a job," Press Release, Sept. 24

Taxpayer dollars are going for all sorts of gimmicks and geegaws, Mr. Duncun, public school and teachers have to pay union dues whether or not they are union members. And NEA and AFT donated mega bucks for the Obama campaign. Considering this puff piece (do you hate teachers' unions, how old are your kids, do you see the President often), I don't expect much from our alert media now that there are no Bushes or Reagans in office.

And here's a press release about collusion collaboration between Arne Duncan and the AFT and NEA, to restore the public image of teachers' unions. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, as the saying goes.

At least Arne Duncan sends his children to Arlington (VA) schools and not to private school like most legislators, the president, and government high level employees. Arlington's schools are perfectly fine, so he's not making any sacrifice, but could he make this attack against for-profit education if his daughter were in private school?

How to Nudge Consumers to Be Environmentally Friendly

It wasn't so long ago we were being urged to switch to plastic bags to save trees, and to use electric wall mounted hand dryers that blow fecal material around rest rooms to save the environment. Some of them can damage the ear drums--sound like jet planes taking off. The recycling instructions for paper and plastic are so complicated, I just don't bother any more. Now we're not supposed to use any bags at all, except those we bring with us. We Bruces use up most of our plastic bags--we have a cat, and we have paper, food and plastic garbage, books that need to be transported in the rain, and goods donated to worthy causes. Most plastic bags these days are so thin that we can only use half of what I bring home.

This summer at Lakeside, the association was selling reusable canvas bags for us to take to the farmers' market. Problem for me was they were made in China where they still use dirty coal.

Does peer pressure work? All your neighbors are . . . yada yada. I liked this response

"When George Binns, a retired engineer in Beverly, Mass., received an OPower report from his utility showing that he was using 64% more energy than his most efficient neighbors, he resolved to do exactly nothing. "I'm not a traveling man," he says. "I don't go on guilt trips.""

How to Nudge Consumers to Be Environmentally Friendly - WSJ.com

Bloodlands -- new book on Stalin and Hitler

To the victor go the archives (or history telling), but I don't think I'll read this one. The review is stunning enough. I was surprised to learn that Germany only had a small population of Jews--about 400,000. Most of the Jews the Nazis killed were in territories controlled by the Soviet Union, however, Joseph Stalin had started what Hitler tried to finish.

National Socialism and Russian Communism were flip sides of the same coin of Karl Marx, who is alive and well in American politics of 2010. Hitler wanted to control all of Europe; Stalin all the world. When the war was over and Russia was our ally so we could defeat the Germans, FDR handed the countries Stalin had helped to decimate back to him. When we were in Estonia in 2006, the saddest thing we saw was a small museum about the Soviet occupation of Estonia. Those poor people. They kept waiting for the Americans. They were so sure they would come.

The display of strength on October 2 at the Washington Mall of the U.S. Communists was stunning. Perhaps there aren't enough people alive today who remember Russia in the 1930s and 1940s and what Communism really is.

"Among his other goals in "Bloodlands," Mr. Snyder attempts to put the Holocaust in context—to restore it, in a sense, to the history of the wider European conflict. This is a task that no historian can attempt without risking controversy. Yet far from minimizing Jewish suffering, "Bloodlands" gives a fuller picture of the Nazi killing machine. Auschwitz, which wasn't purely a "death camp," lives on in our memory due in large part to those who lived to tell the tale. Through his access to Eastern European sources, Mr. Snyder also takes the reader to places like Babi Yar, Treblinka and Belzec. These were Nazi mass-murder sites that left virtually no survivors.

Yet Mr. Snyder's book does make it clear that Hitler's "Final Solution," the purge of European Jewry, was not a fully original idea. A decade before, Stalin had set out to annihilate the Ukrainian peasant class, whose "national" sentiments he perceived as a threat to his Soviet utopia. The collectivization of agriculture was the weapon of choice. Implemented savagely, collectivization brought famine. In the spring of 1933 people in Ukraine were dying at a rate of 10,000 per day.

Stalin then turned on other target groups in the Soviet Union, starting with the kulaks—supposedly richer farmers, whom Stalin said needed to be "liquidated as a class"—and various ethnic minorities. In the late 1930s, Mr. Snyder argues, "the most persecuted" national group in Europe wasn't—as many of us would assume—Jews in Nazi Germany, a relatively small community of 400,000 whose numbers declined after the imposition of race laws forced many into emigration at a time when this was still possible. According to Mr. Snyder, the hardest hit at that time were the 600,000 or so Poles living within the Soviet Union."

Book review: Bloodlands - WSJ.com

I find it distressing that loyal party Democrats don't see who is absconding with their party. The crowd wasn't huge on October 2, but it was blantantly anarchist and communist; Democrats, particularly Jewish Democrats, need to give each other a kick in the pants, then kick out the Communists, George Soros, MoveOn dot org from their leadership.

Maureen Dowd and Ann Coulter

I've never cared much for Ann Coulter. She's a true sister under the skin of Maureen Dowd, who is so sarcastic, full of hyperbole, and nasty, she's really hard to read. Ann's not that bad, but close. I'll bet they go out drinking together and yuk it up over their silly fans.

Tony's Ready to Move the Party

My site meter rolled over to 385,000 yesterday primarily because I wrote about a HGTV program which featured Tony Chau of Las Vegas buying and remodeling a home in Hollywood. That entry is getting about 35 hits a day. I think most people are looking for an easy way to make millions on the internet, and Tony apparently did that. I don't know if HGTV even uses real names--after all, it is a "reality" show.

Collecting My Thoughts: Tony's Ready to Move the Party from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with the purchase of a Hollywood Hills Vacation Home

What are some practical principles for using social media?

The current issue of Christian Research Journal has a thoughtful article by Douglas Groothuis, "Understanding Social Media," in which he analyses the benefits and dangers of Facebook and other social media like MySpace and LinkedIn. He writes on a blog (which I don't think he classifies as "social"):

"things like Facebook and Myspace, although that’s declining in influence, have dangers, and part of that is what you are saying, overexposure, not being careful, not exercising confidentiality, there’s the danger of gossip, rumors, and so on, and also the general tendency to simply be very superficial and very quick to speak. Scripture says not to be quick to speak, but to be quick to listen, and slow to judge. And the Book of Proverbs repeatedly says that a wise man or a wise woman holds his or her peace but a fool proclaims his folly. . . "

What are some practical priniciples for using social media?

Today's WSJ has a front page article about Facebook Apps (Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc.) and the sharing of users' identifying information. I don't use the apps, but I am "overexposed" in the sense that Facebook is so easy to upload what I'm reading and comments are easy, that I spend way too much time on it.

So my new Facebook/Internet rules are

1. Do not log on before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m.

2. Commit to finish my hobby blog--then sell the hobby (a collection of over 100 first issue journals and magazines dating from the early 1970s).

3. Always be polite and kind in commenting on posts I don't agree with.

4. Rely more on face to face interaction rather than faceless social media.

5. Promote more artists, authors and small businesses that I like.

If this is successful, I'll add more, like no logging on before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m. But cutting back on social media is probably like dieting. Don't buy that gorgeous dress in a smaller size as incentive, or it will hang forever in your closet.

The Hype of ARRA: shovel ready jobs created and saved

Now that even the President as admitted (New York Times) that there never were "shovel ready" projects, the hype and tripe we were fed the past 2 years sound even worse. Plus the subtle message is that the government was doing nothing before Obama descended from the lofty heights of white guilt to save us, despite the fact that President Bush was the biggest spender on social programs in all the history of the U.S., only to be outdone by the raging trillion dollar deficits of Obama!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009. It is an unprecedented effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century. The Act is an extraordinary response to a crisis unlike any since the Great Depression, and includes measures to modernize our nation's infrastructure, enhance energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need."

If there were challenges "long neglected" then where was Congress--controlled by the Democrats for most of my voting years? Jobs have not been created or saved, and if you laid the graph of our economic ups and downs since 2008 on top of one from the 1930s, you'd see Obama is following FDR's failed template.

The above quote came from the National Eye Institute where I was researching the number of Americans at risk for glaucoma over the age of 40. When I tried to check on how much of ARRA for the NIH (over $10 billion) has been spent, I found "spin doctors" from left wing think tanks and golly gee-whiz writers for government agencies all saying the same thing about saved or created.

Look folks, the health research industry (mainly universities) lives on government grants--this was a huge infusion for NIH, but I seriously doubt hiring a temp researcher or newly minted doctor on a project started 5-10 years ago really "created" anything. The time and effort to solicit and process the grant proposals, plus the special quasi-government companies that sprang up to do all this probably ate up 50% of it. All these jobs are temporary--a bit more glamorous than FDR's CCC camps of the 1930s, but from them we at least got some parks and roads.

Odd things our government does

Did you know that African Americans are at a higher risk for glaucoma than whites, Asians or Hispanics? And did you know the government includes them in Medicare for glaucoma screening at age 50, but not the rest of us, even though anyone can get glaucoma, and in numbers, more whites are affected than blacks? Oh well. I was listening to a public service announcement on the radio this morning and almost couldn't believe my ears. So I looked it up--several times.

Also on the page where I was reading about this, ophthalmologist was misspelled. So I searched through the documents until I found a contact link--almost everything was phone numbers, even though I was using the web--until I finally found something, so I wrote:

You have misspelled ophthalmologist at a page on glaucoma screening https://www.cms.gov/GlaucomaScreening/ The phth only appears in a few words in English, but on a government web site, it should be spelled correctly.

106 ways to show love

A guy named Vince writes an advice and review column for romance writers and readers. This one is pretty good--106 ways to show (not tell) people (your characters in a story) are falling in love. There's a few (26-28) I don't care for and I think he meant have patience instead of have patients, but it's a very good list about showing love. My husband of 50 years would get an A if this were a test.

Catching up on this and that

I found some narrow leg, boot cut Chico's jeans at the Discovery Shop for $7.50 yesterday. Very comfortable, but I'd never pay $70.00 for them new, and these look like they've never been worn or washed. A tad long, so I wear my boot scooting heels with them.

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My husband had a few spots removed by the dermatologist--one about which I've been nagging him for a long time. However, they were not dangerous or even suspicious so the procedure was "cosmetic" and will not be covered by insurance.

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A friend went to the ER with symptoms similar to a heart attack, but it wasn't, it was his gallbladder, and he will have surgery sometime soon. But in the process of testing him for everything, a dangerous condition very rare, and unknown to him, was found and will be treated with medication (but not cured or removed). So perhaps the incident was a God thing?

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While at the Discovery Shop I found a review journal for $3, hard cover, on a topic a friend needs. I've never seen a title like this as a used book, and I've only known for 5 days that she could benefit from this very narrow field of knowledge. Another God thing?

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My husband has just made a young bride and groom very happy with the gift of a fabulous watercolor of the old Abigail Tea Room in Lakeside, Ohio. They've had the spot picked out to hang it for some time (married in April), but had been busy. He was just about to put it in a show in which case it wouldn't have been available. Aother God thing?

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I'm having the best time volunteering as a conversation partner with a young woman who needs practice with English. She's been in the U.S. for over 6 years and her children all speak English. It's such fun to talk to her and to practice works like Mass a chu setts and Penn syl van i a. She says she likes me as her partner because I speak distinctly and she can understand me. Also, I love to explain things, like the fact that a C has no sound of its own. Cat is kat; century is sen shur i.

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Tomorrow our Lytham Road Traditional service communities of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (we have 9 communities based on worship style) are having a brunch at 9:30. I've decided to make peach cobbler--I have a peach that needs to be used up, and a large can of peach pie filling. Yum.

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When I was in Mt. Morris last Saturday I had a chance to visit the home we lived in from 1951-1958. Although I was 18+ when my parents moved, it did seem smaller. My mother worked so hard to remodel it and make it lovely for us, so what fun to see some of her handi-work still there--like this bookshelf unit disguising the radiator in the living room.

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Although I went to the cemetery last week and visited some of "the old folks at home with Jesus,"--great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, grandparents, sister, cousins--I also found some live ones in the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant. I met my 2nd cousin Sharlein, whom I probably only saw a few times when she was a little girl, her son Bryan, my 2nd cousin once removed, and his wife and adorable baby daughter, 2nd cousin twice removed. So I've added a few names to my Family Tree Maker 2008 (which I hate--liked the older 7.0 version). Also found on Facebook my first cousins once removed Lorrie and Jodie (grand daughters of my Uncle John), although I haven't made a connection yet. Also I've been friended on Facebook by a high school girl friend of my son, Kristina, who is a dead ringer for my daughter and reconnected with her step-father Dermot of whom I'd lost track in his world travels.

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We're half way through October and the colors are brilliant and the rains gentle--a perfect color combination or red, yellow, orange, burgundy and green.

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I've started Condoleeza Rice's new autobiography, Extraordinary, ordinary people. Only into it by 2 chapters, but it promises to be a great read. I like her writing style--spare but descriptive. The account of racism, prejudice and Jim Crow laws (put in place by Democratic "progressives") she writes about in the 1950s south is harsh, but she doesn't portray herself or her family as victims, and she isn't a whiner. Of her parents she says, "Every night I begin my prayers saying, "Lord, I can never thank you enough for the parents you gave me." Amen, sister!

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Tried 3 new (to me) restaurants when I visited Mt. Morris last week. La Vigna is on Daysville Road near Oregon, and over the last 65+ years I've been down that road to "the farm" I've seen a lot of establishments in that location. Very good Italian food. Then my classmates from high school met for lunch at the Pinecricker Inn in Polo--before everyone slipped away we took photos on an unseasonably hot day. A Pinecricker is someone who lived in the area of Pine Creek, near the White Pines State Park. My father grew up in that area and attended Polo High School.

Crime and fatherless homes are directly related

Heather McDonald in City Journal reports on what has happened in Chicago since the September 2009 death of  16-year-old Derrion Albert, when his attack was caught on video and spread across the internet.  The federal government and social workers responded as they've learned to do with a $40 million dollar federal grant for "at risk males."  But that's not what they need.  They need married fathers. Since Albert’s death, 78 more youth under the age of 19 have been killed in Chicago, overwhelmingly in black-on-black shootings.

In every American city, the disproportionate black-illegitimacy rate is matched only by the disproportionate black crime rate. In Chicago, blacks, at least 35 percent of the population, commit 76 percent of all homicides; whites, about 28 percent of the population, commit 4 percent. In New York City, blacks, 24 percent of the population, commit 80 percent of all shootings; whites, 35 percent of the population, commit less than 2 percent of all shootings. The black illegitimacy rate in New York is over 78 percent; the white illegitimacy rate in the city is 7 percent. The national rate of homicide commission for black males between the ages of 14 and 17 is ten times higher than that of “whites,” into which category the federal government puts the vast majority of Hispanics.

Of all the problems we face as a nation, this one seem insoluable to me. I certainly don't think the government can change this, but it sure did help create it, beginning with Johnson's War on Poverty which is when the out of wedlock birth rate began to soar for both blacks and whites. Slight reversal with the 1996 Welfare Reform (begun in 1994) intended to strengthen families and marriage, but was maligned by the press as "War on Welfare Mothers." It had a side affect of reducing illegal immigration and did increase marriage, resulting in more children living with their fathers. Gradually, other federal and state programs were added back in like SCHIP. It did result in reducing case loads for agencies and possibly some lost jobs or transfers.

White House claims it met stimulus goal of 70% spent by Sept. 30

But no one knows how, unless they really goosed it that last month, because they weren't even close. For now, "if they said, it happend" is the rule of this administration. Here's one agency that didn't get its spent--Department of Homeland Security, one that you would think (if you thought like a conservative) would have no problem.

"•The Department of Homeland Security has spent less than $500 million of its $2.8 billion allocation. When the stimulus bill was passed, the CBO estimated that Homeland Security would spend more than $1 billion by now. The slow spending comes from nearly every part of the agency. For example, Customs and Border Protection has paid out less than $50 million, even though it was authorized to spend $680 million to modernize ports of entry and deploy other border technology. That program was halted briefly last fall as news media and members of Congress questioned the plan to modernize little-used border stations in Montana and North Dakota instead of busy crossings along the southwest border." Link

So some alert news media noticed the ND stations weren't as big a risk as Arizona and NM. Who knew!

Tony's Ready to Move the Party from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with the purchase of a Hollywood Hills Vacation Home

I love to watch HGTV--programs are "reality shows" just a tad unreal if you've ever owned, remodeled or purchased a house, but they are fast paced, well-produced, and the advertising is appropriate for the programming. Some times I yell at the set--especially when a young woman is buying a home and planning to be a landlord to her boyfriend of 3 years. Oh lordy lady, how dumb can you get? If you break up, you may not be able to move him out of the house without legal action.

But last night they had the story of Tony Chau of Las Vegas on House Hunters buying a second home in Hollywood. He is a Vietnamese immigrant (name sounds Chinese to me, but there are Chinese families living in Vietnam, called Hoa ), but came to the USA at age 10 and is now 26 and a millionaire. He has some sort of marketing company on the internet. He was house hunting with his decorator who has done several houses for him. What he ended up with was fabulous--and we heard several times during the program how much he likes to party. Well, maybe so, but I do like success stories about immigrants because they are visible, physical evidence that America is still the land of opportunity and dreams if you want to work hard and have a marketable skill.

Tony's Ready to Move the Party from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with the purchase of a Hollywood Hills Vacation Home : House Hunters : Home & Garden Television

What dreams are made of--or fairy tales

Oh wow! A drastic one-year reduction in drop outs in the Columbus Public Schools "defies the odds for an urban school district." Well, why not--the Columbus Dispatch Jennifer Smith Richards didn't peek under the book covers. I'm sure it makes Columbus Superintendent Gene Harris look fabulous.

However, the drop is because of social promotion**. No one fails in elementary school in CPS. Also, a student isn't a "drop out" if he transfers--he's not tracked, and he may never return to school. In some schools serving low-income one parent families, moving on is a family tradition. That probably takes care of quite a few right there.

So that dumps unprepared students into the high school where there is no social promotion. But not to worry--instead of social promotion, they just don't flunk anyone. A student can remain a 9th grader for four years***, passing into Algebra II with DD or FF earned in Algebra I. The graduation rate is figured on students who actually enter the senior year--and since a 4th year 9th grader isn't technically senior, he doesn't graduate and isn't counted. Tricky business, isn't it.

So why is someone who flunked Algebra I taking Algebra II sitting in class with your kid who is good at math? First, because CPS doesn't have honors classes--that would be "tracking." Tsk, tsk. Second, our last 2 governors (Republican an...d Democrat) believed every child should be in a college prep curriculum. This has decimated the track for vocational education. As the current generation of people in the trades retire, more jobs will be sent out of state because many of the Ohio h.s. graduates who do make it are flunking in college after 1 semester.

The Columbus Dispatch could do some investigative reporting so the people will be informed, vote out the politicians who put this system in place and then blame the administrators, who blame the classroom teacher for a kid who'se been lost since third grade.

Every school district in the state calculates drop outs and graduation rates differently. Your mileage will differ with your school and the years your child attended. If you live in Columbus I think home schooling, a private or public charter school, or a church school would be a good alternative if you can afford it.

Teachers are extremely well paid--that's no longer a problem. The problem is they are well paid prisoners in their own system with their hands tied. It's the children who suffer, then our cities, and then our state, because what state can remain competitive in a system like this?

City schools see big cut in dropouts | The Columbus Dispatch

** Social promotion is the practice of passing students along from grade to grade with their peers even if the students have not satisfied academic requirements or met performance standards at key grades. It is called "social" promotion because it is often carried out in the perceived interest of a student's social and psychological well-being. Most schools won't admit the extent of this practice, according to what I've read.

***Repeating a class or "retention" is considered a negative experience, so the poor kid is just moved to the next level of difficulty, but not promoted a grade. Make-up classes are offered, but not required, and may be computer classes, which would require more discipline and effort than a regular class.