Okay: It’s just like the headline says. Rant? Rave? Bring ‘em on. What’s on your mind?
19 Comments
Monday will be the day that a judge will hear a nusiance lawsuit against the 49ers stadium. Several San Francisco city officials did have to
turnover emails they had exchanged encouraging the noxious litigant, Debbie Bress,to file the suit. One Van Ness politico even, according to his friends, offered to pay the costs. This further leads to the rumor that a mountain of cash from St. Francis Woods is coming for a Golden Gate opposition effort in May.
Why is Bress being enlisted? Check Metro 1998. Bress not only did political lap dances for whomever had a buck, she insisted Mayor Judy Nadler was engaged in a felony conspiracy. Nadler was innocent and Bress had hide for a decade until she slithered up from the ooze to offer an apple to Bailey who would accept it for evil. He often wears a tummy tuck and a false beard to go to YES ON J for burritos.
Recall how the official news release (10/29/09) from the mayor’s office and from County Superintendent Charles Weis’s office tried to portray a huge gap in academic achievement?
The picture painted by the deceptive mayor and deceitful county superintendent was that American Latinos and African Americans were struggling in the low 40% range of academic success with white Americans in the high 60% range (a failing grade of F) and with Asian Americans in the mid 80% range (a solid grade of B).
No one has quibbled with that assessment to date, and I was unable to get better information from either Weis or the mayor, but I was able to do further research that shows that the picture painted was severely misleading.
State Superintendent: Statewide Figures
For a radically different view on academic achievement, read this short paragraph from a letter by the State Superintendent of Education Jack O’Connell dated 9/2/09:
“By the end of their senior year, the cumulative passing rate for African American students was 81.4 percent; Hispanic or Latino students, 86.6 percent; Asian students, 95.3 percent; and white students, 95.9 percent.”
That’s a very different picture from the public one painted by the mayor and county superintendent just two months later.
English-Language Arts: Santa Clara County
Further evidence from official statistics shows for rates of change for 2004-2009 that, in Santa Clara County, economically disadvantaged African American students improved their academic success by 6.2%, and economically advantaged African American students improved their academic success by 5.7%.
Economically disadvantaged American Latino students improved their academic success by 8.8%, and economically advantaged American Latino students improved their academic success by 9.3%.
Mathematics: Santa Clara County
Economically disadvantaged African American students improved their academic success by 3.0%, and economically advantaged African American students improved their academic success by 7.2%.
Economical disadvantaged American Latino students improved their academic success by 12.4%, and economically advantaged American Latino students improved their academic success by 11.8%.
Conclusion:
Why did the mayor and the county superintendent scheme to paint a picture of academic success that was dishonest, that was disrespectful to teachers, and that insulted American Latino and African American students in its 2009 racially-tinged launch of SJ 2020?
WHAT WERE THOSE F***ING JERKS IN SACRAMENTO THINKING!!!!
The California tax return is an absurd morass of absurd exceptions and differences from the mammothly absurd and complicated Federal tax return.
And then it includes a list of idiotic, brain-dead tax credits that nobody EVER heard of, can’t possibly understand, or only apply to the mistresses of a few state legislators.
I’m a peace-loving man who wouldn’t harm a flea.
But I would enthusiastically join any mob intent on storming the capital, dragging the vile lizards who wrote the tax code into the streets, and horse-whipping them bloody.
Is anybody else following the Caltrain story that broke last week, that the rail agency is losing money hand over fist and expects to soon end evening and weekend service? http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_14803959
Meanwhile, our “leaders” continue to pursue mega-projects like BART-to-SJ and the $42 billion and counting high speed rail boondoggle that we just can’t afford. Does anyone else think our priorities are screwed up?
> Meanwhile, our “leaders” continue to pursue mega-projects like BART-to-SJ and the $42 billion and counting high speed rail boondoggle that we just can’t afford. Does anyone else think our priorities are screwed up?
ME! ME! ME! CALL ON ME!
Yes. I definitely think that the government’s priorities are screwed up. (That’s government at ALL levels).
But, $42 billion dollars for a single path Disneyland nostalgia ride that can be shut down by a lone terrorist with a banana peel??!!!
“Screwed up” doesn’t begin to capture the magnitude of the stupidity. This is world class stupidity.
I was listening to Bob Brinker’s Moneytalk show on KGO today. He said that Standard and Poor’s had come out with a real estate price ranking increase/decrease for the last year over year, and home prices in the San Francisco Bay Area led the nation with a 9% price gain. He also said the stock market is at it’s highest level since 1 1/2 years ago. Maybe things have finally hit bottom in this recession and we are finally moving in the right direction.
Six months ago, the Oba-morons were hyping “green shoots”. Now they’re hyping Bay Area home prices.
It’s a completely meaningless data point, becasue it says nothing about WHICH houses are being sold, and which are being held off the market because there is no demand.
This statistic could mean nothing more than lower price houses are being held off the market because there is a huge glut and there is no point in listing them. And the higher priced house prices are being cut severely to move them at any price.
The result is that it appears that the average price of houses SOLD is going up.
The real unempoyment/under-employment number is still over twenty percent.
The Obama crowd thinks they are Franklin D. Roosevelt and are following his policies. FDR did NOT end the depression. Unemployment stayed near twenty percent throughout the 1930’s.
This information did not come from the Obama administration, it came from Standard and Poor’s.
I live in a pretty average neighborhood in San Jose. A house for sale up the street had an open house a few weeks ago. It was not a short sale or foreclosure. This house had multiple offers and went for over the asking price. Not saying this is typical as I really don’t know, but there are still plenty of people with money who might be thinking we have hit bottom and are willing to buy houses again. Much of the recession is psychologically driven by those with money sitting on it, so in that aspect maybe we have turned a corner.
Opinion: Victor Davis Hanson: Obama favors the ‘less fortunate’ over the responsible
By Victor Davis Hanson
President Barack Obama, in the tradition of progressive Democratic leaders, believes government should ask the more economically fortunate citizens to be responsible for helping the less well off.
But the president seems to fail to acknowledge that there are plenty of actions an individual can take to avoid becoming part of that growing crowd of “less fortunate.” Instead, in Obama’s world, there exists a simple zero-sum melodrama of victims and oppressors.
If recent poll numbers are correct, many Americans find that life in the real world is a lot more complicated than the near-constant us vs. them rhetoric about bad-guy insurers, surgery-hungry doctors, reckless financiers, greedy bankers, heartless corporations and tightfisted employers who con and hurt the blameless good guys now in need of Obama’s all-knowing government help.
Surely life is too complex to be such a fairy-book morality tale.
Take finance. Of course, we are all still furious at the speculators on Wall Street for the September 2008 meltdown. But not all Americans took out subprime mortgages for homes at inflated prices. So why must some continue to pay their underwater mortgages to keep their homes, while others, as victims, may not have to?
Everyone should pay some income tax. So, why does the administration talk about raising rates sharply and adding even more taxes on the 5 percent who already pay 60 percent of all federal income tax revenue?
Health care also is poorly defined by Obama’s simplistic view of a noble public victimized by a few greedy insurers. Some Americans budget $100 to $200 each month for high-deductible, private, catastrophic health plans. That means they pass on some consumer purchases to ensure they won’t get stuck without coverage for an unexpected operation or accident. In other words, people make choices on how they allot their resources and are not always just victims who are cruelly denied, or cannot afford, some sort of basic health insurance.
One reason so many Americans were against federalizing their health care is that those who do avoid some medical risks — alcohol and drug use, poor diet, obesity or lack of exercise — are, in some cases, asked to pay for the health problems of those who don’t.
Obama now may take on immigration reform in the same sort of bipolar fashion. He decries the present policy toward illegal immigration and cites heartbreaking stories about workers forced to toil in the shadows by profit-hungry employers and an indifferent public. But again, we hear no mention by Obama of the role of human choice and individual responsibility.
When one breaks the law by entering the United States without proper authority, and then continues to live as an illegal immigrant, choices are made that have many unfortunate consequences, both for self and society at-large. A failure to learn English or a decision to send back thousands of hard-earned dollars to Mexico or Latin America can only compound the dilemma of living without legal certification.
In all these cases, Obama, commendably, wants to help the less fortunate. But he seems to care less for those who act responsibly — except to demonize them if they question whether it is fair or wise to subsidize those who don’t.
The president would surely improve his standing if he urged Americans to buy fewer DVDs and more insurance plans — or to avoid drugs and drink, or not to borrow money that they have no desire or ability to pay back, or not to enter the United States without a proper visa.
Here I do not mean just offering the usual presidential generic good advice and platitudes, but tougher talk — backed up by decisions on policy — about the inability of any government always to make right the freely incurred bad choices of its citizens.
Then when things unexpectedly get rough, my bet is the American people would be more than happy to help the unfortunate.
> NBC News reporter Kelly O’Donnell asked Darryl Postell, a black man at a tea party rally held Thursday in Washington: “There aren’t a lot of African-Americans at these events. Have you ever felt… uncomfortable?”
Well, at least Kelly O’Donnell was able to:
A.) find a tea party rally, (many NBC journalists might not know anyone who goes to tea party rallies), and
B.) find a “black man” at a tea party rally.
If Kelly REALLY wants to fret about “uncomfortable” out-of-place blacks, maybe she should do some interviews at the Sierra Club:
“There aren’t a lot of African-Americans here at the Sierra Club. Have you ever felt… uncomfortable?”
JMO: I’ve been swamped the past two Saturdays and have put Rants and Raves on sabbatical. I think (hope) SJI visitors find your posts through the ‘Recent Posts’ widget.
Eric, once again I suggest that you allow individuals to post unmoderated. Since you have the spam guard set up, you can clean up after the fact without worrying about being buried by spam.
On scores of occassions I’ve heard our national anthem massacred by singers trying to distinguish themselves by embellishing and putting their “personal stamp” on it. Today however, at the Oakland Coliseum, Emily Shrader gave the definitive performance. A beautiful, clear, ringing rendition that was particularly memorable because she just sang it straight. Thanks Emily.
Monday will be the day that a judge will hear a nusiance lawsuit against the 49ers stadium. Several San Francisco city officials did have to
turnover emails they had exchanged encouraging the noxious litigant, Debbie Bress,to file the suit. One Van Ness politico even, according to his friends, offered to pay the costs. This further leads to the rumor that a mountain of cash from St. Francis Woods is coming for a Golden Gate opposition effort in May.
Why is Bress being enlisted? Check Metro 1998. Bress not only did political lap dances for whomever had a buck, she insisted Mayor Judy Nadler was engaged in a felony conspiracy. Nadler was innocent and Bress had hide for a decade until she slithered up from the ooze to offer an apple to Bailey who would accept it for evil. He often wears a tummy tuck and a false beard to go to YES ON J for burritos.
Recall how the official news release (10/29/09) from the mayor’s office and from County Superintendent Charles Weis’s office tried to portray a huge gap in academic achievement?
The picture painted by the deceptive mayor and deceitful county superintendent was that American Latinos and African Americans were struggling in the low 40% range of academic success with white Americans in the high 60% range (a failing grade of F) and with Asian Americans in the mid 80% range (a solid grade of B).
No one has quibbled with that assessment to date, and I was unable to get better information from either Weis or the mayor, but I was able to do further research that shows that the picture painted was severely misleading.
State Superintendent: Statewide Figures
For a radically different view on academic achievement, read this short paragraph from a letter by the State Superintendent of Education Jack O’Connell dated 9/2/09:
“By the end of their senior year, the cumulative passing rate for African American students was 81.4 percent; Hispanic or Latino students, 86.6 percent; Asian students, 95.3 percent; and white students, 95.9 percent.”
That’s a very different picture from the public one painted by the mayor and county superintendent just two months later.
English-Language Arts: Santa Clara County
Further evidence from official statistics shows for rates of change for 2004-2009 that, in Santa Clara County, economically disadvantaged African American students improved their academic success by 6.2%, and economically advantaged African American students improved their academic success by 5.7%.
Economically disadvantaged American Latino students improved their academic success by 8.8%, and economically advantaged American Latino students improved their academic success by 9.3%.
Mathematics: Santa Clara County
Economically disadvantaged African American students improved their academic success by 3.0%, and economically advantaged African American students improved their academic success by 7.2%.
Economical disadvantaged American Latino students improved their academic success by 12.4%, and economically advantaged American Latino students improved their academic success by 11.8%.
Conclusion:
Why did the mayor and the county superintendent scheme to paint a picture of academic success that was dishonest, that was disrespectful to teachers, and that insulted American Latino and African American students in its 2009 racially-tinged launch of SJ 2020?
YOU WANT A RANT? I’LL GIVE YOU A RANT!!!
I have just finished Turbo Taxing my income taxes for 2009.
It was very easy to empathize with German taxpayers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PnurcX29oQ
And to which sentiments I would add:
WHAT WERE THOSE F***ING JERKS IN SACRAMENTO THINKING!!!!
The California tax return is an absurd morass of absurd exceptions and differences from the mammothly absurd and complicated Federal tax return.
And then it includes a list of idiotic, brain-dead tax credits that nobody EVER heard of, can’t possibly understand, or only apply to the mistresses of a few state legislators.
I’m a peace-loving man who wouldn’t harm a flea.
But I would enthusiastically join any mob intent on storming the capital, dragging the vile lizards who wrote the tax code into the streets, and horse-whipping them bloody.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s past time for serious income tax simplification.
Happy Easter everyone. May you have a blessed day! God bless!
Is anybody else following the Caltrain story that broke last week, that the rail agency is losing money hand over fist and expects to soon end evening and weekend service?
http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_14803959
Meanwhile, our “leaders” continue to pursue mega-projects like BART-to-SJ and the $42 billion and counting high speed rail boondoggle that we just can’t afford. Does anyone else think our priorities are screwed up?
> Meanwhile, our “leaders” continue to pursue mega-projects like BART-to-SJ and the $42 billion and counting high speed rail boondoggle that we just can’t afford. Does anyone else think our priorities are screwed up?
ME! ME! ME! CALL ON ME!
Yes. I definitely think that the government’s priorities are screwed up. (That’s government at ALL levels).
But, $42 billion dollars for a single path Disneyland nostalgia ride that can be shut down by a lone terrorist with a banana peel??!!!
“Screwed up” doesn’t begin to capture the magnitude of the stupidity. This is world class stupidity.
WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING!!
I was listening to Bob Brinker’s Moneytalk show on KGO today. He said that Standard and Poor’s had come out with a real estate price ranking increase/decrease for the last year over year, and home prices in the San Francisco Bay Area led the nation with a 9% price gain. He also said the stock market is at it’s highest level since 1 1/2 years ago. Maybe things have finally hit bottom in this recession and we are finally moving in the right direction.
http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/sp-case-shiller-home-price-indices/en/us/?indexId=spusa-cashpidff—p-us——
Six months ago, the Oba-morons were hyping “green shoots”. Now they’re hyping Bay Area home prices.
It’s a completely meaningless data point, becasue it says nothing about WHICH houses are being sold, and which are being held off the market because there is no demand.
This statistic could mean nothing more than lower price houses are being held off the market because there is a huge glut and there is no point in listing them. And the higher priced house prices are being cut severely to move them at any price.
The result is that it appears that the average price of houses SOLD is going up.
The real unempoyment/under-employment number is still over twenty percent.
The Obama crowd thinks they are Franklin D. Roosevelt and are following his policies. FDR did NOT end the depression. Unemployment stayed near twenty percent throughout the 1930’s.
Only Hitler and Hirohito ended the depression.
This information did not come from the Obama administration, it came from Standard and Poor’s.
I live in a pretty average neighborhood in San Jose. A house for sale up the street had an open house a few weeks ago. It was not a short sale or foreclosure. This house had multiple offers and went for over the asking price. Not saying this is typical as I really don’t know, but there are still plenty of people with money who might be thinking we have hit bottom and are willing to buy houses again. Much of the recession is psychologically driven by those with money sitting on it, so in that aspect maybe we have turned a corner.
Opinion: Victor Davis Hanson: Obama favors the ‘less fortunate’ over the responsible
By Victor Davis Hanson
President Barack Obama, in the tradition of progressive Democratic leaders, believes government should ask the more economically fortunate citizens to be responsible for helping the less well off.
But the president seems to fail to acknowledge that there are plenty of actions an individual can take to avoid becoming part of that growing crowd of “less fortunate.” Instead, in Obama’s world, there exists a simple zero-sum melodrama of victims and oppressors.
If recent poll numbers are correct, many Americans find that life in the real world is a lot more complicated than the near-constant us vs. them rhetoric about bad-guy insurers, surgery-hungry doctors, reckless financiers, greedy bankers, heartless corporations and tightfisted employers who con and hurt the blameless good guys now in need of Obama’s all-knowing government help.
Surely life is too complex to be such a fairy-book morality tale.
Take finance. Of course, we are all still furious at the speculators on Wall Street for the September 2008 meltdown. But not all Americans took out subprime mortgages for homes at inflated prices. So why must some continue to pay their underwater mortgages to keep their homes, while others, as victims, may not have to?
Everyone should pay some income tax. So, why does the administration talk about raising rates sharply and adding even more taxes on the 5 percent who already pay 60 percent of all federal income tax revenue?
Health care also is poorly defined by Obama’s simplistic view of a noble public victimized by a few greedy insurers. Some Americans budget $100 to $200 each month for high-deductible, private, catastrophic health plans. That means they pass on some consumer purchases to ensure they won’t get stuck without coverage for an unexpected operation or accident. In other words, people make choices on how they allot their resources and are not always just victims who are cruelly denied, or cannot afford, some sort of basic health insurance.
One reason so many Americans were against federalizing their health care is that those who do avoid some medical risks — alcohol and drug use, poor diet, obesity or lack of exercise — are, in some cases, asked to pay for the health problems of those who don’t.
Obama now may take on immigration reform in the same sort of bipolar fashion. He decries the present policy toward illegal immigration and cites heartbreaking stories about workers forced to toil in the shadows by profit-hungry employers and an indifferent public. But again, we hear no mention by Obama of the role of human choice and individual responsibility.
When one breaks the law by entering the United States without proper authority, and then continues to live as an illegal immigrant, choices are made that have many unfortunate consequences, both for self and society at-large. A failure to learn English or a decision to send back thousands of hard-earned dollars to Mexico or Latin America can only compound the dilemma of living without legal certification.
In all these cases, Obama, commendably, wants to help the less fortunate. But he seems to care less for those who act responsibly — except to demonize them if they question whether it is fair or wise to subsidize those who don’t.
The president would surely improve his standing if he urged Americans to buy fewer DVDs and more insurance plans — or to avoid drugs and drink, or not to borrow money that they have no desire or ability to pay back, or not to enter the United States without a proper visa.
Here I do not mean just offering the usual presidential generic good advice and platitudes, but tougher talk — backed up by decisions on policy — about the inability of any government always to make right the freely incurred bad choices of its citizens.
Then when things unexpectedly get rough, my bet is the American people would be more than happy to help the unfortunate.
> NBC News reporter Kelly O’Donnell asked Darryl Postell, a black man at a tea party rally held Thursday in Washington: “There aren’t a lot of African-Americans at these events. Have you ever felt… uncomfortable?”
Well, at least Kelly O’Donnell was able to:
A.) find a tea party rally, (many NBC journalists might not know anyone who goes to tea party rallies), and
B.) find a “black man” at a tea party rally.
If Kelly REALLY wants to fret about “uncomfortable” out-of-place blacks, maybe she should do some interviews at the Sierra Club:
“There aren’t a lot of African-Americans here at the Sierra Club. Have you ever felt… uncomfortable?”
Eric: where’s a new rants and raves? This is 2 weeks old. No-one will go this far down to read my latest rant.
JMO: I’ve been swamped the past two Saturdays and have put Rants and Raves on sabbatical. I think (hope) SJI visitors find your posts through the ‘Recent Posts’ widget.
Eric, once again I suggest that you allow individuals to post unmoderated. Since you have the spam guard set up, you can clean up after the fact without worrying about being buried by spam.
It’s at least worth a try.
Busy is good. It usually means you’re having a lot of fun or making a lot of money…but seriously, how many seconds does it take to put it up?
As to the ‘Recent Posts’ widget; I’ve never used it. Don’t know if anyone else does. In fact, I had to go back to the home page to see what it is.
I’m glad that the Volaris people don’t listen to all of those “close the airport” morons on this board:
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14994654
Who says crime doesn’t pay? Disgusting!
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14994193
On scores of occassions I’ve heard our national anthem massacred by singers trying to distinguish themselves by embellishing and putting their “personal stamp” on it. Today however, at the Oakland Coliseum, Emily Shrader gave the definitive performance. A beautiful, clear, ringing rendition that was particularly memorable because she just sang it straight. Thanks Emily.