Question: When are the Illinois State Reps going to make the sacrifice and take paycuts? How about cutting some nonsense, like the heated driveway ordered for the Governor’s Mansion?

Charge more at the Illinois State Fair. Yeah, that’ll bring Illinois back into prosperity…

Charge businesses more in taxes. Yup, they won’t move to another state (or country)…

Drive up fees. Sure, why not. You’ll just drop the cost of those fees (and our taxes) once the budget mess is over, right?!

One Trillion Dollars

With that being said, if you are a Facebook member, please join the group to help encourage him to join in on the fun.

1,000,000 Strong To Get Tim Stacy to Join Facebook!

Anyhow, I recall one which was for aerospace engineering students about how on the first day, God created lift, and it had the equation for calculating lift. On the second day, Satan created drag along with appropriate equations. Then came propultion, etc.

Anyone have a copy of it? If so, please send it to me or leave a note as to where it might be available on the Interwebs.

TIA!

I’ve got some funny stuff to post. I’ve got some techie stuff I’d like to write. I might even get serious and talk about mangement and leadership (or lack thereof) in Corporate America. I’ll start back in earnest after the holidays are over.

2009 poses to be an interesting year. I hope to post more frequently than I had been.

To my friends at Facebook: “Sup, yo?!”

To the guys from Parks (you know who you are): “Reunion at EAA 2009 or 2010?”

To everyone bothering to read: “Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! I’ll be writing again soon.”

http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=2062

Guess what?!

There is no crisis. There will be no collapse. This “bailout bill” that the House WISELY killed and the Senate IGNORANTLY modified and passed is NOTHING.

Follow along here:

What was the reason these financial institutions failed?

They extended too much of their capital and investments into the over-inflated, over-priced housing market. Lenders were giving away money to people who wanted mortgages without doing their due diligence of qualify those individuals. The mortgage lenders were getting the quick buck by issuing the mortgage and turning around and selling it. The mega-financial institutions invested heavily into the mortgage lending market (also looking for a quick buck) and IGNORED any sort of risk assessment.

Risk assessment?

These banks which have closed or failed due to the “financial crisis” didn’t stay diversified enough. they invested too heavily in the mortgage/housing side and not enough in other secured investing areas. They ignored the fact that, anyone with common sense could see, that homes were becoming overvalued, people we constantly cashing out their equity to by more stuff they otherwise couldn’t afford, and everyone (including the banks) were living on credit.

History of why The People of the United States of America should oppose ANY “bailout bill”:

1) The United States Government, at the influence of the financial institutions, took away our ability as individuals to file for bankruptcy yet protect our homes in the event we should find ourselves in a personal financial crisis. YET, the people who wanted that and are SUPPOSED to know better, are now looking to US, the Individual Taxpayers, to bail them out! F— Them! (With a loud voice, the US Taxpayers did sway the House, but the Senate continued to ignore the will of the people.)

2) We are a free-market economy. With any form of these “bailout bills”, we will give yet MORE power to the government and yet fewer select individuals in controlling where any money goes. This whole deal should be axed! When the House killed the bill, there was a huge sell-off in the stick market. that was just a bunch of folks selling off their stuff so they had cash to reinvest in other locations. The day after the bill was killed, the stock market had record gains. The market took care of itself. (Proof? The markets were stable, The Senate decided they would take a stab at the bill and the markets took another nose-dive. Then, The Senate passed the bill and the market again took a dive. SO, the Wall Street majority doesn’t even believe in the bailout.)

3) Its not REAL MONEY at stake. Its just credit. The bailout is all about credit. The car companies are saying “woe is me, I cant sell any cars”. They can’t because no one has any credit left to borrow on to buy the cars. For too long, too many of us have been in a “cash only” situation: If you don’t have the cash, don’t buy it! It’s about time that the banks and corporations who pushed us to this point have to follow that rule. One of the best examples was a representative on the floor of the House talking about a business in his district who contact him begging him to pass the bill. The representative said something to the effect that if the bill didn’t get passed, this company’s bank would not extend their credit, and this company would not be able to make payroll the following week. WHAT?! Last time I checked, your business should be profitable. If you’re borrowig to make payroll month-to-month, guess what? You SHOULD go out of business.

It is unbelievable that these banks and corporations are looking to the Taxpayers they have worked so hard to screw over push into a corner for more money to continue their counter-intuitive business practices.

If we allow the market to take care of itself, we may have some mildly difficult times for 2009, probably recovering in mid-2010. People will hoard their cash until they can afford things. They’ll pay down or pay off their credit and have the cash again to buy things.

If a “bailout bill” is passed, NOTHING for any individual is going to significantly change. BUT within 5-10 years, we’ll be back to a “financial crisis” again as the “pretend money” these economic “leaders” will be asking for another bailout since they will piss awaywaste this round’s bailout dollars. They pissed threw it all away when it was their own money. Who’s to say they won’t continue to do so? To prevent that we either let the market take care of itself or we switch to a French Socialist model and kiss America GOODBYE. If we want our economy to not turn into some French Socialist model, we HAVE TO say NO to ANY bailout bill.

If we do not say NO now, we’ll have more than our pocket books at stake in the future.

A good example is here:

http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=2054

Enjoy!

When I wrote that blog entry, I emailed all the major news networks and the two major Chicago newspapers. I asked why they were just taking Meeks’s word for the “unfairness” when none of them reported the facts (the big one being that ALL schools in the state get the same money per student and, on the FIRST DAY of class, they get THE MOST MONEY, which impacts the current and following years’ budget).  Well, I did catch a report on ABC7 Chicago, and they took a look at it (although half-hartedly), but still helped prove the point. I’d like to call this point “It’s NOT the funding, stupid!”

The ABC7 report from 8/29/08 can be found at http://abclocal.go.com/wls/media?id=6359874

ABC7′s Leah Hope gave a brief, but fascinating report on funding of suburban schools versus Chicago schools and their graduation rates. The numbers were interesting: In Chicago, CPS spends $11,032.00 per student and has a 66% graduation rate. Oswego 308 (which has portions of several Western suburbs) spends $8,020.00 per student and has a 95% graduation rate. Rockford (to the Northwest), spends $9,300.00 and has a 75% graduation rate. The Effingham School District spends $7,700.00 per student and has a 85% graduation rate. But, the BEST one: The Carterville School District 5 spends $5,800.00 per student and has a 96% graduation rate! With this data (since Mr Meeks provided no studies or number) proves… Holy shnikees! MR. MEEKS: your argument about funding is BULL PUCKEY! {Also, we have to ask: What does it mean to “spend per student?” … Mr. Meeks, seems to me the CPS is funding the students just fine. Clearly there is unfairness and inequality of the funding presented here and I want you to go get my Oswego 308 schools more money so they can spend as much per student as Chicago!}

So, on September 1, 2008, Mr. Meeks appears before the press (stylishly decked out in his “Meeks 1″ White Sox jersey, NOT a business suit as would be expected of a Senator or Reverend trying to make a point ot the Chicago community and businesses) the day before the first day of classes and states he is continuing as planned to go to New Trier (forgive me if I misspelled that) to register these poor forsaken urban youths at the “better funded” suburban school.

Well, he carried out his plan. On September 2, 2008, he declared victory (despite having only pulled out almost 1,000 children). Let’s analyze the events of the day.

At the start of the day the superintendent of New Trier addressed the press (in proper business attire, thank you Ma’am!). To paraphrase, she stated that they had spoken to Mr Meeks and Mr Meeks understood that they welcome the CPS students to come and view the facility and supported Mr Meeks’s want to give more funding to schools through the state budget. But, she said, Mr Meeks also understands that, in accordance to Illinois State Law (which Mr. Meeks, as Senator, should be well aware of) she would be unable to fulfill his wish to register any CPS student due to the rules surrounding residency within school district boundaries. Also, Mr Meeks understood that classes were in session and special accommodations would be made for Mr Meeks and his truant students so that they would not distrub those students who are actually in school and in the process of learning.

Upon his “victorious” arrival, Mr. Meeks and his merry band of truant students we’re lined up along side of the school, given a breif tour, and escorted to the nearby field to hold their rally. At the rally, Mr meeks anounced that these truantstudents would be given lesson plans and be transported during the remainder of the week to the lobbys of the big Chicago-based corporations for lessons. What?! Why?! Now, Mr Meeks has decided to use the Olympics to try and strong-arm Mayor Daley into taking his side. Meeks’s logic being that these corporations will be the source of fundingsponsorship for the Chicago 2016 Olympics. To quote Mr Meeks : “If we are promoting Chicago as a world-class city, we should have world-class schools!”.

Let’s back up a second, Mr. Rev. Sen. Meeks. Given the numbers above, what would you say the REAL problem with graduation rates is? I’ll tell you Mr. Meeks, pay close attention here: IT’S THE PARENTS!

Good God, man! You’re  a reverend for cryin’ out loud! You know the MOST IMPORTANT thing to make a community, family, or individual successful is a support system. What support system are you promoting here, REVEREND Meeks?! Why not set aside state funding for after-school or after-work programs to help parents connect with their children, to show them right-from-wrong, to help them understand what it takes to be a success and how hard you really have to try to be a failure? How about teaching them the words in the books you preach from the pulpit. I’m not a religious man, Mr Meeks, but I believe the word you are supposed to be preaching would somehow be summarized as “Wealth and possessions does not equal success.” I mean really, what is the measure of success for an individual? It is to set a goal and reach that goal. The goal isn’t supposed to be fame, fortune, and luxury. The goal is to be family, health, and happiness.

Mr Meeks, you have taught these 1,000 students the wrong lesson. You are continuing to proliferate the idea that money is ALWAYS the solutionand that it (and anything else you want) whould be just handed over. Really, computers in a classroom equals success? I think not. Teaching the children how to be academically successfull without the aid of technology will build a greater base knowledge to make them far more successful (and far morelikely to get scholarships) than any “Big new school with computers and plasma displays” will ever get them. (I know this, since when I went through the CPS, I was not even allowed to use a calculator. I was astonished when I attended college at how many students couldnt get by with out a calculator for even simple tasks. By not having the crutch of technology, I was better equipped to think faster and be a lot more academically agile than my counterparts. Oh, wait: Success!)

Mr Meeks: I applaud you for your interest in fairness. I applaud you in your concern for the children and their education. But this is all wrong. The target has been missed. Stand down and find a better way to cure the social issues that plague urban youths. Money wont fix it. Changing the taxes wont fix it. Going to a “nicer school” wont fix it.

Better family and community support and togetherness will fix it.

1) Meeks update.

2) Blagojevich. Giving away State Trooper Speed trap secrets (and nobody notices)

3) Random stuffs about my beliefs in America, and how my opinion is changing. Time for Revolution?

For those of you new to this blog, Welcome. to those of you who actually keep checking for updates,  get a hobby  Thank You (Seriously, Thanks. I hope to at least get people to think. I am not absolutely correct all of the time, but I hope I’m close…)