Weekend Open Thread
Welcome to your weekend open thread. I hope you’re enjoying this fine weekend. The US now has double the amount of people living in areas with marriage equality. New York is the first state to do marriage equality with a bi-partisan vote (although most Republicans did vote no) and only the second to do it legislatively. (California’s legislature did pass marriage equality but Schwartzenegger vetoed).
Since it’s the weekend, I’d thought I’d use this opportunity to link to some longer pieces that are definitely worth your time to read.
If you have time, I highly recommend you read “My Life As An Undocumented Immigrant” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas.
Earlier this year we discussed an essay by Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams about how women are like children and mentally handicapped and how men are just uncontrollable raping machines. Adams continues to dig that hole in this piece in Salon “Scott Adams takes on Salon.” The post features these words of wisdom from Adams:
Scott: On your first bullet point, you are making my point for me. The actual point of the earlier blog post you mentioned was that men don’t argue in situations where the cost of doing so is greater than the gain. The world is watching you make that true for me right now. This debate will probably reduce my income by a third, as feminist forces have already mobilized and started to ask newspapers to drop Dilbert. That’s the sort of risk that men don’t have when they engage in a debate with other men.
I’m at the point now where reading Dilbert in the newspaper just pisses me off.
At Climate Progress, meteorologist Jeff Masters details the last year in extreme weather and its link to global warming in Masters: Driven by Global Warming, “It Is Quite Possible That 2010 Was The Most Extreme Weather Year Globally Since 1816.” Sobering read.
Another must-read for those interested in climate change: “Journey into the weird, wacky world of climate change denial.” This article gives a lot of details about the most celebrated climate change denialists – the 3%-ers (97% of climate scientists say climate change is real and human-caused) and the various other non-experts who claim expertise anyway.
Tags: Open Thread
Jose Antonio Vargas’ piece was fearless and heartbreaking. Sent here as a kid and doing the work to genuinely make something of himself — fulfilling the dreams of his mom that he have a chance at a better life. Don’t know what will happen to him at this point, but it certainly seems like the only ones to be hurt by deporting him will be us.
It is really a shame that *this* turns out to be a fatal bit of naivete.
As for that idiot Scott Adams — he hasn’t been watching the Van Jones/Glen Beck argument. Where Jones reminds everyone that their argument — one that ended in Beck being asked to leave Fox — was a triumph of capitalism. Meaning that market forces pushed Beck out and ending that bit of the gravy train.
Dilbert is dead to me now.
Sorry–I have to talk about money. More specifically this Delaware budget. Gang, education took huge hits these last 18months, and many districts absorbed locally what Dover decided they wouldn’t underwrite anymore. Locally, we cannot continue this. Many districts already released valuable positions, demonstrably impacting a child’s success. The bottom line–Dover owes the schoolchildren of this state some piece of restitution in the current proposed budget to help offset the 11million in slashes public education was handed. To not even consider any restoration of previous funding streams, while increasing allocations to arbitrary programs, or designation of new programs is an abandonment of the very purpose of state taxes in funding public policy. Please contact your specific legislators now. Most folks are of the erroneous belief that the schools will be fine–they won’t. Any district that was able to underwrite the slashings of last year, have rapidly depleted their local savings to maintain the integrity of programs and curricular delivery. This cannot continue. Dover cannot abdicate fiscal responsibility, in light of encouraging fiscal revenue. Do not allow your local districts to hold the bag for Dover’s discretionary use of funds!!!
Talking about money is fine. But I seriously want to know why districts that need the additional funding (and I have no doubt that they do)can’t raise additional revenues via their school taxes.
Frankly I do think that sending extra money to schools rather than throwing it at the local banks makes way more sense, but hey.
They can raise school taxes–but the argument being the local tax raise is to be for local support of a shared community venture e.g new construction assessment, programming specifics, or athletics. The state was to provide the basics of transportation, personnel (especially in regards to our neediest learners), and tech block grants for that ever changing field and upkeep. It would be fine cass if locally we were charged, and prepared via the taxpayer to underwrite these functions–but the State long ago chose to undertake that part of the tab. Districts are not prepared to financially assume what the state in good faith has provided students–having shared their local dollars to bridge emergent shortfalls of what were very needed services. If there is added money to the state budget, shouldn’t Dover be looking to restore some of the baseline services they were to provide to public education, and not shoot the wad with banking boondoggles? If turfing rudimentary services to the local side of taxes, ah…what is a district supposed to do that would reject a tax increase, vis a vis referendum to provide these rudimentary services? If the State wants to revisit assigned costs, they need to come clean to the taxpayer about who will really be raising your taxes in light of pet projects, and increased funding elsewhere. Sorry, but in my book–that underbelly of social/public policy–far exceeds priority in funding, and reach in influence than brightening the yellow median lines. Public education in Delaware has sucked it up locally the last 2 years–and Dover deliberates and denies relief?
Local districts are allowed to raise taxes up to a certain amount without a referendum. Brandywine School District did this either last year or the year before. With the recent increases in county taxes and hikes in BSD taxes a few years ago, a local referendum stands little chance.
This is especially true given the article in the News Journal the other day that recommended more money be put into classrooms instead of administration. (www.delawareonline.com/article/20110625/NEWS03/106250343/Report-Schools-should-put-more-into-classrooms)BSD said the report simplifies things, but that is hard to explain to a taxpayer like myself who is tired of paying more each year.
Those taxes you refer are a tuition tax–a reflection needed to tweak the cost up or down of special needs children who require more intensive, often out of district or residential placement. It is usually a formality–and not any sweeping tax increase. Remember, one child moving into a district w/ severe special needs can tilt unexpectedly the expenditures for a budget. This is adjusted annually as needs dictate. And yes, it can go down, and I’ve seen it done. It is a needs based tax, not an operational one. Now the state would like us to meet their passed on default, and pass increased local taxes–even talking about no referendum this time–but is that fair to the credibility of school districts, or the dispensation of a looser state budget this year? And you don’t think Denn’s piss-ition on school funding was timed just right? Funny how credible think tanks, who do this for a living, counter his claim. Nothing like demoralizing the troops who propped up his boss in the face of RTTT–yup 65k for our district–from RTTT this year. That means 6 and half bucks per student was the windfall!!! Can’t take ’em to see “Waiting for Superman” for that chump change. Oh–and it was his very “administrators” tasked w/ presenting by mandate their plan for RTTT money.