
May your Christmas be full of joy!

an anonymous, cooperative email system for creative, (usually) humorous writing, serving the Net since 1989 and realizing its first virtual personality.It's a pretty cool system. Users ask the oracle a question by email to oracle@cs.indiana.edu, and as long as the words "tell me" appear in the subject line, it will be forwarded to another user for an answer. All of the answers are reviewed by the Oracle's Priests, who select the best for a periodic digest. Users vote on the digested "Oracularities," and the best of those are then published for each set of 25 digests.
The Internet Oracle has pondered your question deeply. Your question was:Give it a try! Just don't ask the w**dch*ck question.And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
> O Oracle most helpful,
>
> Despite the fact that I lost my arms in a horrible accident 2 years
> ago, none of the arms dealers I've spoken to are willing to help. Why
> is that?} Like you, I'm stumped.
The Texas Supreme Court did the expected last week and struck down the statewide property tax for funding public schools. But what was surprising and welcome was the Court's unanimous ruling that the Texas school system, which spends nearly $10,000 per student, satisfies the funding "adequacy" requirements of the state constitution. Most remarkable of all was the court's declaration that "more money does not guarantee better schools or more educated students."The Texas Classroom Teachers Association (TCTA) also comments on the decision, with predictable spin (emphasis mine):
The Texas Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated ruling on Nov. 22, 2005, in the latest, and, for now, definitive, round of school finance litigation. The litigation involved the state of Texas defending itself against a challenge by two groups of school districts asserting that the current system of school finance was unconstitutional because it was inadequate, inefficient and effectively constituted a statewide property tax which violates the Texas Constitution. The trial court agreed with the school districts on all major counts, except one relating to facilities funding. The state and districts involved agreed to skip the appellate court and bring an expedited appeal directly to the Supreme Court.The complete decision by the court is here. TCTA exerpted the decision in their summary. Here are some encouraging bits:
In summary, the Texas Supreme Court agreed with the trial court that the school finance system essentially establishes an unconstitutional statewide property tax. However, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the trial court with regard to adequacy and efficiency. Though TCTA certainly would have preferred that the Supreme Court rule that the schools were inadequately and inefficiently funded, the state’s win on these points appears to be a narrow one. As you will note from the excerpts from the actual decision below, the state appears to have “squeaked by” for now.
Contrast this decision with the reality here in New Jersey, imposed on the taxpayers by the ten (!) decisions in Abbott v. Burke from 1997-2003. They include the requirement for the Legislature "to assure by the commencement of the 1997-1998 school year, that per-pupil expenditures in the poor urban districts are equivalent to the average per-pupil expenditure in the wealthy suburban districts."
- Deficiencies and disparities in public education that fall short of a constitutional violation find remedy not through the judicial process, but through the political processes of legislation and elections.
- [T]he judiciary’s duty is to decide the legal issues properly before it without dictating policy matters.
- The public education system need not operate perfectly; it is adequate if districts are reasonably able to provide their students the access and opportunity the district court described.
- The Constitution does not require a particular solution. We leave such matters to the discretion of the Legislature.
At the request of Warren County Community College President, Dr. William Austin, the College’s Board of Trustees met tonight to review available facts concerning a recent dispute between an adjunct instructor at the College, Mr. John Daly, and a WCCC student and certain safety concerns that arose as a result thereof. The dispute revolved around, among other things, comments made in an e-mail from the instructor to the student who was representing a new student organization and other facts and circumstances that came to the Board’s attention subsequent thereto.One wonders what other facts came to light as the board and school management dug into this "instructor's" activities. Anyone think the press will bother to ask?
Tonight’s meeting of the Board was initially called to consider what if any action would be taken. As we prepared for that meeting, we received word from Mr. Daly that he had tendered his resignation from WCCC effective immediately. The Board has accepted his resignation.
The Board has no further public comment on this matter.
Soaring state tax collections have created momentum for tax cuts in 2006, when most governors and legislators will face voters.But where's New Jersey in this list? Isn't our state revenue growing as well? If even California can get out of its hole, why can't we? Roberto at Dynamobuzz notes that we are already facing a $5 billion "shortfall" in next year's budget.
State and local revenue rose 7.2% in the first nine months of this year, the biggest jump since 1990, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Spending is up 6%, the most since 2001.
Three years of strong revenue growth have left many states with large surpluses. New Mexico is looking at a $1 billion surplus. Florida expects more than $3 billion.
Even financially troubled California took in $3.4 billion more than it spent in the budget year that ended June 30 — the state's first surplus since 2000. California's deficit was erased by a 13.2% revenue increase.
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In the 2001 New Jersey governor's race with Jim McGreevey against Bret Schundler, the candidates spent a combined $36 million on the campaign with the Democrat McGreevey outspending the Republican Schundler by a margin of 3-to-1. The result was McGreevey 1,229,818 votes to Schundler’s 915,314, a difference of 314,504 votes in favor of the Democrat.Since I love to play with numbers, I decided to see what I could learn here. First, some basic spending rates. (See if you can guess which candidate is a fiscal conservative.)
In this year’s gubernatorial race the candidate’s spent a combined $75 million with Jon Corzine outspending Doug Forrester by a margin of 2-to-1. The result was Corzine 1,157,385 votes and Forrester 954,347, a difference of 203,038 votes in favor of the Democrat.
Campaign Spending per Vote | |
McGreevey (D) | $ 21.95 |
Schundler (R) | $ 9.83 |
Corzine (D) | $ 43.20 |
Forrester (R) | $ 26.20 |
Navy | Army | Marines | Air Force | |
$19,348 | $18,668 | $11,905 | $ 5,890 | |
I'm making a special appeal to Jersey Bloggers who are active military, vets, those who have friends or family in the military and generally to all those who really do "support our troops." You need not make a large donation. Every single donation helps!
1. | Navy | $8575.00 |
2. | Army | $6619.99 |
3. | Marines | $4265.00 |
4. | Air Force | $2270.00 |
Item | Qty | Wal-Mart Price | Cost | "Retail" Price | Cost | Source | ||
Elmer's Glue | 3 | $ 0.20 | $ 0.60 | $ 1.99 | $ 5.97 | Staples.com | ||
Glue Stick | 3 | $ 0.20 | $ 0.60 | $ 0.24 | $ 0.71 | Staples.com | ||
Theme book | 6 | $ 0.10 | $ 0.60 | $ 0.23 | $ 1.38 | Staples.com | ||
1-inch binder | 1 | $ 0.55 | $ 0.55 | $ 0.99 | $ 0.99 | Staples.com | ||
Boy's shorts | 2 | $ 4.50 | $ 9.00 | $ 12.99 | $ 25.98 | Target.com | ||
Boy's shirts | 3 | $ 3.88 | $11.64 | $ 6.99 | $ 20.97 | Target.com | ||
Boy's jeans | 1 | $ 3.00 | $ 3.00 | $ 17.99 | $ 17.99 | Target.com | ||
striped t-shirts | 3 | $ 4.88 | $14.64 | $ 6.99 | $ 20.97 | Sears.com | ||
Girl's jeans (Jordache) | 1 | $ 11.00 | $11.00 | $ 10.94 | $ 10.94 | eBay | ||
Girl's jeans | 1 | $ 9.00 | $ 9.00 | $ 11.98 | $ 11.98 | Target.com | ||
Carpenter shorts | 1 | $ 7.00 | $ 7.00 | $ 8.99 | $ 8.99 | Target.com | ||
$67.63 | $126.87 |
The "Send Wal-Mart Back to School" Campaign is part of nation- wide effort being led by the two largest teacher's groups in America, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), and WakeUpWalMart.com. The ATF and NEA have partnered with WakeUpWalMart.com in what is latest phase in the growing national campaign to change Wal-Mart that began in April of this year.Apparently, because Wal-Mart is not unionized, the teacher's unions feel compelled to join the UFCW in criticizing the company at every turn. Also piling on will be some of our favorite New Jersey political figures:
Teachers and other speakers at the press conference, which include United States Senator Jon Corzine, Assemblymen Jack Conners and Herb Conaway, and many local political leaders, will highlight how Wal-Mart has repeatedly failed America and our community.Sure, Wal-Mart has failed America. Failed all of us by bringing us decent quality goods, when we need them, at reasonable prices. While employing 1.3 million people. Profitably.
Speakers will, in particular, call on Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, to adopt a "Zero Tolerance" policy and promise the American people that Wal-Mart will forever end its exploitation of children in the United States and globally, and will no longer break child labor laws in America.Because, of course, zero-tolerance policies work so well.
Local teachers, community leaders, and students, will also discuss the growing negative effect Wal-Mart has on all of America's families and children, as well as our public schools, because the company increasingly shifts its costs on to American taxpayers.This press conference is taking place on school property, specifically the Samuel L. Ridgeway Middle School in Edgewater Park, New Jersey. Seems to me, that by using a public facility for their press conference, UFCW, the teacher's unions, and the politicians are shifting the cost of their campaign against Wal-Mart onto the taxpayers of Edgewater Park. I wonder how many hours of overtime this will require by the police department, the school maintenance folks, etc.