My Blog

Author: jbosco

  • Florida’s Bigoted New Education (Union) Standards

    Asian students should be the smartest, and teachers will expect the least from blacks.  That’s the case in Florida, at least, where the Board of Education has agreed to pass a revised plan that outlines new academic goals for students based on race.  …

    Under the approved strategic revision, 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of whites, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of blacks will be expected to read at or above their applicable reading grade levels in future tests. For math scores, they expect 92 percent of Asians, 80 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of blacks to excel, suggesting that some races warrant a lower bar than others.

    Patrick Franklin, president and CEO of the Urban League of Palm Beach County, opposes the revision, telling the Sun Sentinel, “All children should be held to high standards and for them to say that for African-Americans the goal is below other students is unacceptable.”

    via RT.

    What kind of nonsense is this?  Thank you Patrick Franklin for standing up and demanding equal educational expectations for African-American children.

    Did Florida just accept the premise of The Bell Curve?  Is that where we are today?

    Can you imagine someone said, well it’s ok to pay black people less than white people or Asian people?  Or that black people only need to work 6 or 7 hours a day instead of 8?

    We need to work on treating all peoples equally.  Isn’t the goal to try to ignore race — not call it out?  This goofiness is only going to set back race relations 20-30 years.

    It’s such a stupid idea that one has to wonder why it was put forth and passed…

    And while educators are hoping to have higher test scores coming in across the board, race and ethnicity play a deciding factor in what’s expected from Sunshine State students in the years to come.

    “Educators” for those that don’t know means “Union Teachers.”  These are the people who are fighting to limit any performance based evaluations.

    Florida’s Republican governor think this is a dumb idea:

    Schools’ expectations should be color blind.  As a nation, we have rejected police use of racial profiling on the streets, by what rational do we now accept it from educators in the classroom.

    Indeed Governor. Indeed.

    The take-away here is that Democrat Teachers’ Unions are racist.

  • Connecticut Dem Jokes Promises Vote Corruption

    Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch is at it again. The Democrat who presided over a 2010 vote casting and counting scandal in the tight race for governor was caught on video Friday guaranteeing Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Christopher Murphy a big result in the state’s largest city–even if it takes days to count.

    Bridgeport provided a crucial and dubious margin of victory to Democratic and Working Families Governor Dannel P. Malloy in 2010 amidst unprecedented chaos at the city’s polling places. The 2010 Bridgeport assault on democracy included photocopied ballots, altered hours at polling places, a mysterious bag of votes and Finch’s abuse of the city’s emergency notification system to increase turnout on Election Day.

    Murphy, locked in a dead heat with Republican Linda McMahon, needs the grimy Bridgeport Guarantee. He got it from Finch on Friday while visiting small businesses in the poverty-wracked city. A laughing Finch boasts even if it takes a couples of days to get the results,”You can be guaranteed you’re going to get the vote.” Two years after the 2010 fiasco, it remains no laughing matter to the rest of Connecticut.

    via The Weekly Standard.

    Video at the link for those of you who say “it didn’t happen that way.”

     

  • Secrets Of the College Admissions Office

    1) It sucks to be a middle class white applicant.

    2) East Asians can be disadvantaged too.

    3) Athletes bring down the quality of the class. So do legacies, but not nearly as much.

    4) Early admission is less competitive, despite what the College claims.

    5) Most college essays are too boring.

    via Business Insider.

    Tell me something we don’t already know, right?

  • MSM a/k/a The Ministry of Truth vs. Romney

    This (sadly) is not a spoof:
    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFrB1-cD2Zc?rel=0]

  • Real Commercial or a Spoof?

    I honestly don’t know.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9Twgif9gM?rel=0]

  • The Fiscal Entitlement Cliff

    The U.S. Census Bureau says 108 million Americans live in households where at least one person participates in a means-tested program. We estimate that 80 million are the primary recipients….

    Since the president took office:

    • Medicaid is up from 46.9 million to 56 million people.

    • Disability beneficiaries are up from 7.5 million to 8.8 million.

    • The food stamp program has grown from 32 million Americans to 47 million.

    Add to that 80 million beneficiaries 40 million Americans age 65 or older on Social Security and Medicare (9 million of the 49 million on Medicare, including some under age 65, also receive means-tested benefits).

    That 120 million does not include the numerous smaller entitlement programs.

    Put them all together, and a number approaching half of the country participates in an entitlement program.

    Now add in the 16 million new Medicaid beneficiaries, thanks to ObamaCare, plus an estimated 12 million people who enter the health insurance exchanges by 2014, where most will receive federal subsidies.

    The budget implications of these programs are huge. For fiscal 2012, America spent $2.2 trillion of its $3.7 trillion budget on entitlement programs — $400 billion less than the $2.6 trillion in gross annual revenues.

    Oh, and interest on the federal debt was $220 billion.

    Thus, the cost of entitlement programs plus interest on the debt are nearly equal to total federal revenues today.

    Virtually everything else the government does is with borrowed, or printed, money.

    via Investors.com.

    I realize that this is all a little hard to understand for a lot of people.  So to put it in easy to understand terms:

    This is like living on a credit card — spending 50% more money than you actually earn — and then dying and leaving the bill for your kids.

  • CTA Scam Sucks Millions in Taxpayer Funds

    It is after all the Chicago way.

    The CTA has potentially inflated by up to $150 million the federal taxpayer money it received since as far back as 1982 by “fraudulently over-reporting” the number of miles CTA buses travel while in service, according to a new report by a little-known watchdog group.

    In its report, titled “A bus tour of Chicago-style fraud,” Washington-based Cause of Action alleged that CTA officials reaped millions in extra federal money that the agency was not entitled to by improperly including “deadhead,” or out-of-service bus miles, along with funding-eligible revenue bus miles when applying for money from the Federal Transit Administration.  …

    But Cause of Action, which said it based its findings on “insider audit information” from six years ago, said the CTA likely continues to get away with its inaccurate mileage reporting, with the knowledge of the U.S. government, because of the transit agency’s political connections stretching from Chicago to Washington.

    It cited the clout of Valerie Jarrett, who is senior adviser to President Barack Obama and also a former chairwoman of the CTA (1995 to 2003), and Robert Rivkin, general counsel at the U.S. Department of Transportation. From 2001 to 2004, Rivkin was general counsel at the CTA.

    Officials at Cause of Action said they brought the matter to the attention of the U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general, the U.S. attorney general and Congress, but no action was taken.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Surprise Surprise Surprise!!

    The good citizens of Chicago are naturally shocked and appalled that Valerie Jarrett and other stooges of The Machine have engaged in taxpayer fraud. Shocked and appalled.

    This sounds like a Qui Tam lawsuit in the making.  Someone going to get on that?

     

  • Google Data Centers — Photos and Comments

    Very cool photo tour of some of the stuff behind the scenes at Google data centers.

  • CCW in Illinois? Without State Action?

    In the only state that doesn’t let its residents walk around with concealed firearms, a northwest Illinois county could become the testing ground for gun enthusiasts who want a clean sweep for their Second Amendment rights.  …

    The county has scheduled a pair of hearings this month to determine whether it should allow people to carry guns within Winnebago borders. The proposed ordinance – which was written after officials received a petition with more than 11,000 signatures this year – would contradict state law.  …

    Webster, a local tree nursery owner and a longtime National Rifle Association member, wrote the proposed ordinance himself after receiving the petition in August. It would let people carry guns in Winnebago if they had proper training and possessed a Utah permit, which is recognized in neighboring Midwestern states and has no residency requirements.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    People are clever.  Even in Illinois.  I have a Utah CCW, and a Florida.  I also have a few other tricks up my sleeve which means I’m generally able to carry most of the time.  But this is good news for law abiding citizens of Winnebago County.

    This sort of movement could move statewide.  I can see a result whereby it was legal to carry in some counties but not all.  Such a decision would force the state to act.  This is basically what happened in Ohio, California, and few other states prior to those states creating their own CCW laws.

    Going to be confusing for awhile here.  But this is a step in the right direction.

  • Bus-Only Lanes Hurt Everybody

    CTA super-express buses that will operate on 21-mile stretches of Ashland and Western avenues will have the benefit of using full-time bus-only lanes, under a still-evolving concept the transit agency and the city will present this week at three open houses, starting Tuesday.

    via  Chicago Tribune.

    This is just an extension of the ongoing war on vehicles & one of the dumbest ideas ever.  It makes no sense to make life more difficult for cars; which just so happen to be how most people get around.  Why punish the majority for the minority?  Some people literally must drive b/c they have to take children to school before work or otherwise travel on routes not covered by public transit.

    Damen in one lane.  Halsted is one lane.  California is one lane.  It makes no sense to destroy the only two North-South arteries.  Between the bike lanes and the center islands it is getting impossible for vehicles to get around.  This includes police, fire, and EMS vehicles as well.

    Lastly, what is the problem trying to be solved here?  That buses travel more slowly in traffic is not new.  It’s been that way since the invention of buses.  People on buses however can read, play with their phones, talk on the phone, send txt messages, and do all sorts of things that people in cars cannot (safely) do.  This is the advantage of taking the bus over the car… that, and the cost.

    Chicago can be a great great city.  Truly world class.  But it will not become so by declaring war on vehicles which the majority of people use to get around.