IEA: It's all about the Money, errhh, Kids.

Anyone still thinking that the Illinois Education Association believes "it's all about the kids" or their focus-grouped-to-death "Education is a Basic Right" slogan need only read this letter to the Bloomington Pantagraph.

Ken Swanson, IEA President, states among other things that they are "unalterably opposed" to tinkering with tenure, tying teacher pay to standardized test scores, and are "are unalterably opposed to “merit pay” schemes".

Schemes? Man, most of us have been "schemed" our whole lives. We're surprised he didn't use the phrase "risky schemes" in there someplace.

The Sun Times said the other day, "People who would never endorse the idea that businesses should be granted local monopolies, offer workers lifetime tenure, or pay employees based solely on seniority, embrace a status quo public [education] system that has all of these features."

After reading this, is there anyone left that believes these people have any interest whatsoever in "the children"? Let's recap; you MUST hire more teachers; you MUST not pay on performance; you MUST retain tenure (job for life); you MUST not hold us accountable (unless you lump together yourself, the money, the state, local, and feds). You MUST dump in more money into a dysfunctional system regardless of the results.

Mr. Swanson left unsaid on thing which has been uttered to the General Assembly more and more in the A+ Illinois circles: "We funded and voted you guys in for the last two elections and it's payback time - now!"

Fathers Against Distracted Driving

You've seen the news pieces. Cell phones, fast food, sleepy drivers, stereos, children, makeup, worriers, pets - they're all bad and need to be banned from cars!

To further this cause, we proudly announce our new activist group - Fathers Against Distracted Driving! That's right, we've decided to railroad legislators with FADD based issues.

We feel with the current Illinois General Assembly, the time couldn't be more ripe.

Woodford County Web Site (coming soon?)

No, now, we really, really, mean it this time. The County of Woodford IS going to have a web site soon.

We think.

The email addressing scheme for the County will be First Initial; Last Name@woodford-county.org. For example, the County Administrator - Greg Jackson's new email address will be gjackson@woodford-county.org.

E-mail should already be in force for departments under this scheme.

What's Our Gross Margin On That?

Is it just us or does it seem a bit disturbing that we're selling nearly half of all the arms on the world market?

Listen, we're as much for reducing our trade deficits as anyone, but is this really the way to do it?

Folks used to be shocked when we pointed out that arms sales during the Clinton administration increased faster than than any previous administration. For some reason they (particularly the supporters of said administration) thought that was just impossible.

Since 911 the Bush administration has made those guys look like pikers. We believe it's time to reaccess our arms sales, particularly those to the "developing" nations, and most particularly, those classified as "conventional arms".

For two interesting pieces on the state of the world market (white market, that is) see:

this Nov., 2006 Boston Globe article

and this congressional summary report.

McCain Saddling Up