Saturday, February 10, 2007

Entrance Changes

With my older son looking at collages being a junior ,I kind of
wonder if he has a chance of getting in at most collages he seeks.
Interesting article from the Milwaukee Journal.

Can someone explain what this means ?

Academics would carry the most weight, but non-academic
factors would be considered, too, including "student experiences,
leadership qualities, motivation, special talents, status as a
non-traditional or returning adult, veteran, and whether the
applicant is socioeconomically disadvantaged or in a historically
underrepresented racial or ethnic group."

UW board approves policy
By MEGAN TWOHEY
mtwohey@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 9, 2007
Link to article

Being a white male from northern Wisconsin , well, he probably
doesn't have much of a chance to get in a Wisconsin school.
Yes, I 'm talking about reverse discrimination!!!!!

Friday, February 09, 2007

Something to Think About

When will people elect people with conviction,
with balls to do what right. The ones who are not
afraid to tackle the tough issues!
What If we did fix Social Security ?

From B & S and from WILLisms,com

What If.

What if Congress had reformed Social Security back
in early 2005? What if personal accounts had taken
effect on June 1, 2005?
Just theoretically.

Well, we'd all be quite a bit better off. Looking at the
Thrift Savings Plan options, which are the foundation/
inspiration for most personal account reform plans,
here are some results:

. Fund G Fund F Fund C Fund S Fund I

June 1, 2005 $10.88 $10.67 $12.91 $14.68 $15.19
February 8, 2007 $11.77 $11.21 $16.05 $19.72 $22.70
Increase 8.18% 5.06% 24.32% 34.33% 49.44%

Those "increase" percentages are just total increases, not annual rates.

The 10-Year compound annual averages:
G: 5.31% F: 6.25% C: 8.37% S: 9.56% I: 7.53%

Meanwhile, back at the Social Security ranch, there are no
personal accounts, nor even any huge one-size-fits-all
interest-earning accounts, for those Social Security taxes.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Way it Was

From "theplainoldtruth"on the YAHOO Finance
"WGAT" message board. I don't know who they are and
hope they don't mind me passing this on to you.


Pull a chair up to the TV set, "Good Night, David. Good Night,
Chet.

"My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs, and spread mayo
on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach,
but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.My Mom used to
defrost hamburger on the counter, AND I used to eat it raw
sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax
paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't
remember getting e.coli.Almost all of us would have rather gone
swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring)
; no beach closures then.The term cell phone would have conjured
up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
We all took gym, not PE ... and risked permanent injury with a pair
of high top Keds (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training
athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors.
I can't recall any injuries, but they must have happened because they
tell us how much safer we are now.Flunking gym was not an option ...
even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem;
and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health
system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and
everything.I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something
before I was allowed to be proud of myself.I just can't recall how bored
we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box, or 270
digital TV cable stations.Oh, yeah! And where was the Benadryl and
sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!
We played " king of the hill " on piles of gravel left on vacant
construction sites; and, when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the
48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (Kids liked it better because it
didn't sting like iodine did), and then we got our butt spanked.
Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose
of a $89 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to
sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where
it was such a threat.We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either,
because if we did we got our butt spanked there, and then we got
butt spanked again when we got home.I recall the kid from next door
coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he
fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house.
Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof.
It was a neighborhood run amuck.To top it off, not a single person
I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family.
How could we possibly have known that?We needed to get into group
therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped
by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire
country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?

LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA.
AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED.

This really hits home, I wish my boys would have gone
through some of this!

Shaaaaaazzzzzzaaaaaaammmmmm

What a difference a week makes? I leave for a couple days
and what did I miss.

From Owen at B & S and the Milwaukee Journal.

THURSDAY, Feb. 8, 2007, 2:35 p.m.
By Patrick Marley
State's budget is $54 million short

Owen has four options for you .
I think we have to look at option # 5.
The WEAC teachers are running the government of Wisconsin and are
using the new math to calculate the state budget.


I must be in the wrong state.

I'm kind of surprised the MJS is even reporting this?
Is this surprising? No!
Do people know what this means? No!
If I told my good friends on Berry Lake about this ,
would they believe me? NO!

Oh I forgot it's Bushs fault.

So there you go !

Where is Governor Lawton on this budget shortfall.

When will Lawton take office?

Back From The North

Finally back from the upper peninsula. Started Monday morning
in Gladstone Michigan,went east to Nabinway, north to Newberry,
west to Marquette, west some more to Houghton Hancock and south
to Bruce Crossing and finally back home. Wow, 941 miles round trip.

Just have to say the people in Michigan are all great people. The
weather was good and bad , white outs going to Manistique and
on Wednesday in Houghton they said blizzard conditions with 40
mile winds that night. It was great but it was time to get out of dodge!

I thank all the people at the stores I visited , your all super , see you
in the close future. Only 30 or so inches of snow ( just guessing) and
they said compared to normal that's not a lot!

Link To Houghton Michigan Weather