I’m friends with a couple who take annual yachting vacations to exotic destinations such as the British Virgin Islands, Turkey and Croatia with groups of as many as 12 people. This couple long ago stopped inviting me and my introverted husband, Tom, on these trips, though I can sense their puzzled disappointment over our persistent refusals. But the thought of 10 days in a small space with that many people gives me hives. Tom and I have tried to explain, but I’m not sure our friends get it. Telling me how nice everyone is misses the point. I’m sure each and every person is delightful, but there are just too darn many of them at once. Period.

We’re also not bed-and-breakfast people, if breakfast with other guests is mandatory. (“Where y’all from?” we joke to each other. The mating call of the B&B guest.) I once read about a B&B where the owner collected antique hats that guests were encouraged to wear to breakfast. Really? That sounds fun to people?

At the only B&B Tom and I have ever liked, in the Texas Hill Country, we never even saw the owners. Breakfast was left each morning in a basket on our porch. Perfect.

We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.

Where School administrators take pride in their record of frequently firing teachers they consider to be underperforming. Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded "self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort," to quote the school's website.

Of all the thousands of schools in California AIP students are only outscored by only four middle and three high scores. Among this elite only AIP has mostly underprivileged children. Their results with poor Blacks and Latino students mock the convential wisdom that they will always lag behind others in school.

These results drive Bay Area liberals even nuttier especially when the school proclaims that it "does not preach or subscribe to the demagoguery of tolerance."

WASHINGTON—A shocking report released by the U.S. Department of Education this week revealed that a growing number of the nation's educators struggle on a daily basis with some form of teaching disability.

The study, which surveyed 2,500 elementary and high school level instructors across the country, found that nearly one out of every five exhibited behaviors typically associated with a teaching impairment. Among them: trouble paying attention in school, lack of interest or motivation during class, and severe emotional issues
....

"Our teachers are in trouble," Hughes continued. "Some can't even teach at a basic sixth-grade level."

As noted in the report, hundreds of schools have already begun setting up special classrooms in which the teaching- disabled can receive the extra attention they require, teach at their own unique pace, and be paired up with patient students who can help to keep them on track.

According to school administrators, new programs like these encourage marginalized and disenfranchised teachers by rewarding them for showing up to school prepared and taking an active part in classroom discussions. Many also have counselors on hand to intervene when an instructor grows frustrated or throws a tantrum and storms out of the room.

But why is being good at grammar more important than, say, having good social skills? It shouldn’t be. People get hired and fired for getting along with people. Not for knowing when to use lay and when to use lie. The irony is that most people who are great at the rules and details of grammar do not have great social skills – it’s just how the brain works.

Credit cards have long been a very good deal for people who pay their bills on time and in full. Even as card companies imposed punitive fees and penalties on those late with their payments, the best customers racked up cash-back rewards, frequent-flier miles and other perks in recent years.

Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

“Yeah, but guess what? I’ve got a dog that lives with me,” Biden replied. “The smartest, coolest dog in the world.”
“The new dog I have is only five months old and his name is Champ,” Biden told the schoolkids.“My dog is smarter than Bo, his dog,” he jabbed.

To the school, Biden's "average Joe" style took on an inspirational meaning. "He's a local boy, even though he wasn't born or raised here, but in their little minds they'll think, If he can be vice president, maybe I can aspire to be something," said Pat Cowen Wojenski, a community assistant and mentor at Bellevue. "They don't have to be vice president, but just to motivate them to want to try harder and look for something better for themselves."

After talking to V.P. Biden most of them feel they are already over qualified for the job.

Popular US breakfast cereal Cheerios is a drug, at least if the claims made on the label by its manufacturer General Mills are anything to go by, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said.

This handbook will help sellers of used products identify types of potentially hazardous products that could harm children or others. CPSC’s laws and regulations apply to anyone who sells or distributes consumer products. This includes thrift stores, consignment stores, charities, and individuals holding yard sales and flea markets.

No biggie if someone turns you in it is only a $100,000 fine.

Selling old kids books, anything with metal, paint, or plastic that a kid might use, old clothes or shoes with metal components that a kid might wear? You know, any of the stuff people routinely sell at yard sales? Technically, you could be on the hook for thousands of dollars worth of fines. Obviously, it's unlikely the CPSA goons are going to bust up your yard sale. But putting out a detailed booklet that reserves the right to do so is hardly encouraging about where the implementation of this legislation is heading.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

— Elbert Hubbard

All things considered, $25,000 isn't a great amount of money when it comes to running a school district.

It's a fraction of 1 percent of the $28.4 million it will take to run the Brandywine Heights School District next year.

Yet, at a recent school board meeting, the debate over a $25,000 allocation for tax rebates to low-income senior citizens took on major proportions.

As much philosophical as financial, the discussion reflected a dilemma facing school boards in tight financial times: Whose interests come first, students' or taxpayers'?

Following a debate, the board voted 5-3 to increase the tax-rebate allocation to $25,000, or $10,000 more than last year. Eagle Article

Taxpayer rage eruptedas fed-up property owners disrupted Tuesday night's meeting of the Tulpehocken School Board.After a confrontation over speaking time with board president Ralph E. Moyer, protest leader Charles Davis delivered a
no-tax-increase message backed up by a petition signed by 300 district
residents."We're from TEA of Tulpehocken; we're Taxed Enough Already," declared
Davis, a retired Delaware teacher who lives in Jefferson Township.

The Brandywine Heights School Board has signaled it intends to expand the district's popular property-tax rebate program for senior citizens and the disabled. After beginning the program with a $15,000 allocation in this year's budget, the school board has authorized the district's finance director to set aside $25,000 in the 2009-10 budget.

Under the program, Brandywine will rebate from $125 to $325 of a homeowner's school tax liability, depending on the applicant's income. Households with incomes over $35,000 do not qualify.
...
In the first year of the program, the response was so great that the district could pay qualified households only 70 percent of the amount they were due.

Full rebates for all 129 would have cost the district $21,425.

To avoid a repeat, board member Kenneth Heffner favored raising the allocation to $30,000 or $45,000 in next year's budget.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.