No big loss.

Let the government shut down! That's what happens when you pay for something and do not receive the product, and then you just keep on paying, month after month, year after year, and the ones you're paying keep saying next year, next time, or "we need more money" and we allow ourselves to be led around by the nose...how do we expect anything to get done if we are not willing to do it ourselves? Look at the facts...the trillion-dollar bailout wasn't enough...where does it end? I am tempted to run for president. Nobody wants to tell the truth...but I would tell the truth. FORCE people to look at the facts. Not opinions, not skewed versions of the truth, just the hard cold facts. It's time everyone gets involved. Government's been screwing us for a long time. It's time to get UNSCREWED!

Transfer THIS

Our daughter attended private elementary school grades one through three. With two mortgages to pay, we decided to put her in public school. It was then we realized that the home we had purchased three years back was not in the school district the real estate agent said it was. However, the actual district approved a transfer to the other. Transfers of this kind are granted only on a year-to-year basis.

For five consecutive years, the actual district approved our transfer requests. Our daughter is about to enter high school at the age of thirteen. This year’s request was denied.

This is a unique situation. Most transfers are requested as a result of the family moving mid-year from one district to another for employment reasons, and the parents would like the child to continue in the same district for the rest of the year. Not so with us. We have lived in the same house for 9 years. We are not asking for a change of any kind. We want nothing other than have our daughter not change horses mid-stream. The denial of the transfer amounts to a forced change, which we believe is not in our daughter’s best interests. All of her friends, her extra-curricular activities, and her education have been molded by the only public school district she has known. Yanking her away from all of this is just WRONG.

The reasons they have given for the denial: transfers are not guaranteed; they are a privilege, not a right – and the most recent: transfers from one level to another, e.g. middle school to high school – are a definite no-no. This is notwithstanding the fact that they approved the level-change transfer from elementary to middle school.

It is my opinion there is nothing to their side of the argument except greed. They want the money that one more student represents. Our daughter’s education or well-being is not, despite my many emails to them, anywhere on their radar.

So, we were forced to make a change. We now reside in a place that is in the preferred school district. No more yearly transfer requests, no more political mumbo-jumbo. Because education in Oregon is funded by state taxes, you would think that a parent would more of a say in how (or where) his or her money is used. The district we abandoned has conveniently forgotten who foots the bills in their neighborhood. They certainly don’t give a rat’s about what’s best for the children. It’s the old “it’s MY whistle and YOU can’t use it” attitude. And this coming from so-called “educators.”

McChrystal

Obama is an idiot. He can't keep the help in check. And he's supposed to running the war. Ya know, if John McCain were to barge into the Capitol Building and simply take command, the military wouldn't have too much of a problem with it. The citizens of this country elected a pretty face, not a military leader. Obama must go. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors. He's going to get us into serious trouble. He's already proved his inadequacy in dealing with the recession. I shudder to think this soundbyte slacker has command of the most advanced fighting machine in the world. McChrystal's resignation? It is Obama that should resign. He's downright scary.

Throw it away

Looks like people just don't get it. There's a special election just around the bend for Oregonians, and measures 66 and 67 want to raise taxes on businesses and folks making over $250K per year (that's my layman's take on it anyway). Throwing money at the problems we face is NOT the answer. We've tried it, over and over again, on state and federal levels, and it has simply not worked. What we need to do is roll up our sleeves and work on these problems ourselves. Better people make better communities. We shouldn't expect others to do for us what we are too short-sighted or unwilling to do for ourselves.

Throw money away, if you like. No matter how much you give, they will ALWAYS want more. I say make them do their jobs like the rest of us, and make do with what they already get. Hey I gotta go. Taxman's at the door.

Dirty little secrets

Seems gay men don't care about the potential they have for spreading the AIDS virus. Attention, sports fans! There are terms that spring to mind when I think of their insistence upon their lifestyle: "depraved indifference" and "reckless endangerment" are two of them. In a perfect world, all of them would take the necessary steps to avoid the transmission of that dreaded disease. This is not a perfect world. While some do take the steps, most do not. Even if most DID do so, the virus would still survive. I cannot imagine anyone who would insist upon having the right to practice and to knowingly--KNOWINGLY--be a part of an activity that could have such cataclysmic consequences. Yeah, I know, if I open this bottle of nerve gas in this room it will kill all the people in it. But I have the right to own the bottle, the gas, and I must have the right to open the bottle in a public place! I'm an American! No, Charlie Brown. You are NOT an American. You are selfish, and you are guaranteeing the suffering of many persons, both now and in the future, all for the sake of your bodily urges. Thanks a bunch. NOT!

Life and death

I agree with those who say everyone should have a good life. Of course.



But I do not agree with trying to legislate it into being. The point is, people live and people die. Period. While governments may be verygood at providing protection through the military and other benefits, it is simply awful at caring for its citizens. That is as it should be. You and I are ones who need to care. WE are the ones who need to be there to care for those in need. Governments are ill-equipped to provide such care. No sum of money can replace the need of regular people to just be kind to one another. There are very few programs, subcommittees, cooperatives, or other federally funded undertakings that will keep people from procreation, or from death. We can blithely pass off all of our self-inflicted wounds on a system that was not built to handle such matters, but look at the result. in the US, WE are the government. If it is not doing well, WE are not doing well. The US government is simply a mirror of the level of apathy to which this country has plummeted over the last 60 years. Perhaps the tendency to not wish to take responsibility for one's own actions is a flaw of human nature, but it IS one that can be recognized and handled on an individual basis. The answer is not blaming the goverment.

Take a look in the mirror. There you will see the problem and the answer to the vast majority of today's woes. But remember, people live and people die. These are facts, and they cannot be countermanded by any federal initiative.

yeah, yeah, yeah

You may prefer to call Barack Obama "black" but I prefer to call him "white." Neither is accurate. But he is touted as being the first African American president...that would seem to say that he is of African descent and an American, but he is not only of African descent, he is half white as well. Last time I looked being white was not a flaw, or something to be kept in the closet. I am tired of all this nonsense. He should be welcomed as our new President, but no more or less than any other before him.