Finally tests based on intelligence, not skin complexion

Today, the US Supreme Court finally judged 5-4 that Hartford, Connecticut Firefighters who study for a test should be granted their certificates and promotions and not illegally discriminated on just because their skin is lighter than some others.

Finally.

I have been a victim of racism in this country for the past 43 or so years, but have not lowered myself to cry foul when disallowed from holding elected office by the South Carolina Education Association based on race. This happened around 1975. It was not right then and not right now. They should now change their policies based on today's court case.

Leaving the workforce

I decided to quote myself for this month's Truth.

During the previous 8 years, tax revenues were up, although you had to look for the story in the MSM. People may be reluctant to continue this voluntary tax system when most people refuse to work. It seems to have reached that tipping point where more people are taking others’ efforts without even a hint of effort on their part.

Deciding to retire and take social security early (age 63 now) is an option that some I know have recently exercised. Nothing illegal. Nothing immoral.

Previously, during the honest decade, some would go that extra mile, but no longer. Call it the silent protest if you like. When working people decide not to work, they make less taxable income. Simple when you think about it.

The socialist/communist lies of FDR back in the mid 1930 are coming home to roost.

Recently read The Forgotten Man. Good read. Many of the good, honest men died in WW II and are now few and far between.

Grace period

Well, it seems that the Internal Revenue Service has changed its previous method of operation.

On 14April09, I received a notice of error from the IRS. Last time, I was charged 104% immediately.
This time, the IRS gave me 21 days from the date of notice to pay the mistake on my Income Tax Return.

It was my subtraction error and I put the check in the mail the next day, thus avoiding any penalty or interest.

I am glad to see they have changed their method of operation and I think you will agree, this is much fairer than immediately charging 104% interest.

Some things do change.

Ex Post Facto

Sometime around 1961 while in the 8th Grade at West Rocks Junior High School, Mrs. Cole taught her last class of Civics. I was in her last class. We learned quite a bit about what it meant to be a United States Citizen. I learned a few latin terms, including Ex Post Facto. She taught that it meant no one could go back and make a previous act criminal, then charge that person with a crime.

Recently, the US House of Representatives have once again engaged in this type of retribution. This time with contracts.

In the United States, the federal government is prohibited from passing ex post facto laws by Article I, section 9 of the U.S. Constitution.

Just as with the Kelo decision to take people's property, certain people have continued to chip apart this law that was wrestled from the King of England back during the American Revolution.

In the 1994 opinion United States v. Carlton, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that retroactive tax laws did not violate the constitutional prohibition on ex post facto legislation, provided their retroactive application was "supported by a legitimate legislative purpose furthered by rational means

What else is in store for US, God only knows.

Public schools

I took a tour of an elementary school in the second highest ranked school district in our state. It was not pretty. The secretary did not know how to verify that my address was in their attendance zone. The attendance officer took me around.
The physical building was well kept after about 30 years of use.
The students were not as sharp as they were, thanks to section 8 housing.

There were so many counsellors, coaches, speech therapists, police, and others that I almost couldn't see a teacher. The ratio was about 12:1 overall in my quick estimation. When I taught, it was about 28:1 on average over 30 years.

About twenty years ago, my son offered to tutor Math. He moved to Florida after being graduated from USC. Every few years, we received calls from the school district from a parent who wanted their child tutored. Finally after several calls explaining that our son had moved, I finally made a trip personally to the school where the list originated. The person promised that his name would be taken off. Ten years later and more phone calls and contacts, we still received calls.

Two years ago, another call. I had retired and explained that our son was not available, but I would be glad to do the job.
I had recently tutored a 5th grade girl from below basic to above average on PACT. My only stipulation was that I would take no money, just like my last success.
They never called back!
My only guess was that they were not serious or playing games.

My son called this week. He searched on the web and found our school district's Math tutoring list. His name was still on it with a 2008 (updated) list!!

So much for efficiency, competence and accountability from our government public schools.

They were good while they lasted. RIP public schools.

Proper Parents

During a recent vacation to Orlando, Florida, I was sitting on the edge of a fountain at a mall.

A family was sitting nearby. A man, his wife, and two children: one girl and a boy about aged 4, just about the same age as our grandson.

The boy wandered over to the fountain and put his hand on the spray, interrupting it and maybe a small drop landed in my direction.

The mother came over, talked to her son and led him in front of me. He apologized. My two sons were with me, but they did not notice this.

I said to the mother, "that is a good parent, thank you".

I wondered what percentage of the US population would do that.

Probably about 7%.

Any similar good stories?


On a sad note, I heard "whoopie's" comment: "most fathers took their 12 year old boys to prostitutes to introduce them to..."

Now I know why she is so demented. She may have been exposed to one of those "fathers" she was talking about, revealing her upbringing. Too bad she has to assume everyone else had the same childhood. I will say with honesty that my father certainly did not do that with me. I was "new" on my wedding day.

The new special self-selected minority

A few weeks ago as I drove onto Interstate 26 eastbound, I noticed the right lane a bit slower than normal. Following behind a seemingly new automobile, I noticed a few bumper stickers and began reading them from a comfortable distance behind and noticed the speed--about 40-45 MPH. The minimum speed there is 45 MPH.

That is when it started. The man held out his left hand and extended his thumb in the direction of the middle lane. I was trying to pass, but a line of cars were already in that lane passing the slower cars (mine and his).

Finally, I had an opening and passed. I looked in his direction and he held up a sign on his left window something like:

"Read up on the minimum distances between cars"

Now this guy must have had that sign for quite some time. He may even have a few others. Here we go..........

Yet another "special protected minority" wanting more "rights" than the general population.

For his information, here are the printed South Carolina Highway rules-- Quote:

The important thing to do (on an interstate highway) is to drive with the flow of the traffic at all times....and
The slowest speed you may normally travel on an interstate is posted. Sometimes, especially when the weather is good and traffic is light, even this can be too slow. Most important, drive with the flow of traffic as long as the traffic is not exceeding the posted speed limit.

If you read this, mr self-selected, you were the one violating the rules of the road in South Carolina. (his tag was from some northern state), may have been Wisconsin.

There are no specific distances printed in our South Carolina Driver's Manual.

Have any of you encountered this guy or another like him driving intentionally slow, advertising some "hybrid" automobile?

Memo For Record 2008

Two years after the Democrats took over the congress, the national debt increased to : $10,658,356,277,853.89. That is a $2,070,021,293,453.25 increase or put another way, a 24% increase in two years!

Unemployment: 6.5% That is a 47% increase.
Reference: http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

The price of gasoline has been up and down with a high of over $5.00 to an average of a little under $2.00 in the last six months.

We have had no terrorist attacks on our country.

God save us.

Forced Annexations

City of Columbia moves to annex pockets is the lead story on the front page of today's State newspaper (see link above)
The city previously threatened to deny water to businesses near where I live. They lied about having a continuous property line -- the (in)famous gap (giap) that did not exist. Before that, the city was allowed to count a prison population and promised that was all they wanted. Sound familiar?

I live in one of those unincorporated areas, but have not been targeted yet for forced annexation. I already pay the city double their charges for water and sewer as well as pay for a fire tax. The city has admitted that not all of the usage charges go back to water and sewer operations. This sounds like what happened in the wild west years ago. Threaten to cut off people's water.

I will reprint here a letter to the editor from yesterday's newspaper. It is apropos to our times.

Spreading wealth is like highway robbery
Instead of being charmed by this sentiment, we should ask ourselves what Sen. Obama means when he says he wants to "spread the wealth around." First of all, there is no such thing as "the wealth." All wealth was created by somebody -- and all wealth rightfully belongs to the somebody who created or traded for it.
Second, "spreading the wealth" means the government is taking some of what you earn and giving it to somebody else. For the recipients of this stolen wealth, "spreading the wealth" means stealing from your neighbor. Whether you rob your neighbor directly or you depend on a hired burglar or the government to do it for you, you are stealing the fruits of your fellow human being's labor.
Those who want something for nothing will vote for Obama. Those who believe in earning what they have by their own efforts will vote for John McCain.
If ever we allow the population of those who want something for nothing to outstrip the population of those who believe in earning what they get, we will witness the moral decay of America.
TERRY TAYLOR

A similar taking took place many years ago. It began with a man's lust for another's property. He had an accomplice, a woman. Funny how some things never change. There is evil still in this world.

She wrote in letters falsely inviting the owner of the vineyard to a gathering. She forged his name. She paid off two worthless scoundrels to falsely accuse the owner of cursing God. He was murdered by stoning.

Recently the US Supreme court ruled that a city can take another person's property if they can make more money from taxes on a different type of use like a business or rentals instead of a man living in a house with his family. We have come to this point in our history this election. Will we continue down our path of moral bankruptcy, or turn back to God?

Borrowing money is not a civil right

Much has been made of the recent failings of Fanny and Freddy. Even more for a few Wall Street firms.

The root causes of this, as many liberals want to "discover" is first, Jimmy Carter and the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act.

Several other nationally known bloggers and publishers have added some more roots.

Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.

Certainly no civil right to a loan by an illegal criminal alien.

Let the chips fall where they may, we will survive when our foundation is built on solid hard work; an honest days pay for an honest days work.

NOT. "Free money" for doing nothing but crying about what happened thousands of years ago. Get to work. Pay your own way.

These are the people I am talking about:  "Sleeping in a PA airport"  When the security person was told about these "suspicious characters" the reply was, "they" let them do that.  I wonder how many of these people would be allowed to sleep free in a high security airport?  At what point would the tipping point cause enforcement of the rules?

Here is a video I saw on Michelle Malkin's page. I usually do not link other's work, but will give credit to: vickisoup
Update 30Sept08. Above censored by youtube. Here is a replacement, still available (for now).
One final addition: An IBD editorial that further outlines the culprits including Franklin Delano Raines and Jamie Gorelick, the woman who contributed to 9/11 by creating a "wall" between our FBI and CIA preventing them sharing information about the hijackers who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center Twin Towers. Shameful.

"I'll have you fired"

That was the frustrated reply from an 8 year old boy when I didn't push my grandson quickly enough at a Church playground!

Amazing.

This 8 year old who I had never met before first said, "watch out" as he was swinging from a playschool swing designed for 2-5 year olds. My 3 year old grandson walked over to use the other swing. This older boy did help him into the infant seat, then snapped it and said, "someone else will have to get you out".

This scene only involved three people.

He went back to his swing and then said to me, "push him, I'm not going to do it"

I waited. My grandson and I talk as adults and he will ask if he wants any help.

Then the older boy said, "I said, push him, didn't you hear me!?"

I waited. Then the older boy said, "Push him now, if you don't, I'll have you fired." At that, I laughed at him.

Then he said, "how old are you?"

This is when I began correcting him.

I said, "If you want to introduce yourself, you first give your name, then your age." He did. I did. Then he said, "are you retired?" I finally understood.

He thought I was a teacher or employed somehow as a monitor at the church where we had gone for a relative's 90th birthday party. I said to him, "do you threaten your teachers at school this way to get your way?" He did not reply, then left.

This is the problem with public school education. The students think they are in charge. We have allowed this to deteriorate to this point. This is why many send their children to independent schools or private schools.

I encountered this type behavior about three times when I taught. All were from females. All were threats to lie about what I was supposed to have done to them. I took the threats to the principal each time. All were lies and attempts at blackmail.

This does not occur in european schools. I visited about ten when in europe. This is how education was done in America back when we had control of our schools and parents were married before they had children and sent them to school.

Cheating on the test

I just recently took a FEMA course, in residence at a local State Emergency Management location. It was three days. It was announced that there would be a written test that required 70% to pass. I thought it might be closed book and was prepared for that. When the time came for the test, it was announced that no cooperation was allowed but that the test was "open book".

I was a bit surprised, but understandable.

What I was also surprised about was the amount of "cooperation" that began during the test. First a few whispers here and there (what did you put for #6, etc) then outright getting out of one's seat and walking over to a co-worker and "helping" the other person with their open book test!

The kicker was that these people where members of our "minority" who are numerically a majority.

So much for "equal opportunity"

If these people ever want to be taken seriously and equally during a National Emergency, they must comply with instructions.

Complexion

Complexion refers to the natural color, texture, and appearance of the skin, especially that of the face. The word is derived from the Late Latin complexi, which initially referred in general terms to a combination of things, and later in physiological terms, to the balance of humors.

Four Temperaments is a theory of psychology that stems from the ancient medical concept of four humors, or "humours" in UK English.



For the first time in my lifetime, on an official government application, race is absent, and in its place, complexion is there--hue or appearance of the skin and especially of the face.

blond, fair, pale, pallid, ashen, waxen, white, sallow, sickly, dark, olive, bronze, sandy, rosy, red, ruddy, florid... in some lists, the traditional race classifications are still there: Negroid, Caucasian, Nordic, Aryan, Melanesian, Malaysian, mulatto, Oriental, Semitic, Amerindian... it seems out of place to say that someone has a blond complexion or an Amerindian. Would those be hair color or nationality?

Now.

Finally.

Are we over the racial quotas that began in the late 1960s, discriminating on race who must be hired?

Or.

Will we now discriminate on complexion? Should "ruddy" be a classification?

Or.

Will temperaments be classified and quotas enumerated on that psychological quality? (choleric, melancholic, sanguine or phlegmatic) Which is more desirable? Which would be the "preferred minority"?

Or.

Will complexion be a hidden or code word for race? I hope not, but wonder why even put complexion on an application?

IRS charges 104% interest

Even I was surprised to calculate this.

The Truth:  I have been audited three times in my life since 1963 when I first filed income taxes.

Once I got $20 back, once $4,000+ and this last time I owed $300.  All were honest errors.

Now, as you can see, I am not complaining, especially considering the $4,000 "refund" a few years ago.

This time, there was a $26 interest charge for each month (if paid by May 28th).  The notice was dated 28 April.  Lets do the math:  26 x 12 months = $312 for the year (non compounded);

divided by the principle, $300 yields a whopping 1.04 or 104% for the year. 

Public Education funding

I learned that most funding for "public school" education came from local sources in 1968 during my undergraduate studies at The University of South Carolina Education Department.

Who would know by listening to certain national candidates for President. The federal Department of Education drains $80 some Billion dollars annually.   They insult teachers at local schools in my opinion as well as my observations I had with these people during my teaching career.

Reference: Annual Report 2007 School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties (SC)

School Funding (revenues) by percentages

State 67.69%
Local 30.69%
Miscellaneous 1.62%

If one were not paying attention, that last amount is the Federal Government's contribution to Public School Education along with contributions by individuals, groups such as PTAs, PTOs and others.

So.

All these people "running off at the mouth" about how the federal government is 'here to help' are not much more than bags of wind.

Any questions?