One down, ??? to go....

I think everyone around here is crazy... I keep hearing people say, "i just wish it would warm up!" We have a glorious begining to the summer. Most days barely reaching 82 degrees. Yet people still beg for the torture... It is like being on death row, knowing your execution date is approaching quickly and inevitably. Yet every day complaining, "why can't it happen today? This perfectly nice day could be so easily become the ultimate torture..."

Do you not get it? The last two years we have had 32-36 days with the temperature reaching over the century mark. It will come! Why must you people wish it comes more quickly?

If there is one type of weather that makes me crazy, i would undoubtedly choose heat. I am a cold weather person. Nothing is better than a crisp winter morning in Tahoe, your cheeks with the slight burn of the cold air. Or I would like a nice pleasant day like the one which occured on July 21, 1983 in Vostok, Antarctica. On that day it was a nice balmy 121 below zero... I mean there has to be some sort of down parka i could wear that would make me feel just right.

But alas, it is June 30th, and i am melting away here in Davis. The good news is that it has been below normal this summer so far and normally, every summer we get 82 days above 90 degrees, 19 days above 100, and four days above 105. Perhaps we will not have any more days above 100 this summer! I mean that actually did occur in 1907. Even in 1982 there was a summer of only 4 days of hell. But i am sure if that were to occur, all those people will once again complain that it is too cold...

So Here i sit.. Sweating. No matter how many layers i take off, i still sweat. In fact I have recently been rather impressed by the amount my shins can sweat. That is the theme of my summer. Instead of being the summer of Ella, or the summer of fun, it shall be the summer of sweat.

You know today it was a nice 81 degrees in Sandpoint, Idaho... I should just load the truck and move there... That's it! No more talking! I am doing it, we are loading up the family and moving to Idaho! Where i will sit on my dock over the lake, enjoying the 81 degree high!

But unfortunately, my butt is entirely glued to this chair by the pool of sweat which has doomed me to another summer of hellish heat here in the central valley.

Oh well, maybe this year will be cooler than last and there are only 35 days of 100+ remaining.

I haven't been good and fired up in a while...

Perhaps now that i am a old fart with two kids i have payed less attention to the highly annoying world of local and world politics... The most amusing and telling thing i have read in a long time was published by good old Tom McClintock... I shall share it with you all.

A Modest Proposal for Saving Our Schools

by Senator Tom McClintock

Posted on May 15, 2005

The multi-million dollar campaign paid by starving teachers’ unions has finally placed our sadly neglected schools at the center of the budget debate. Across California, children are bringing home notes warning of dire consequences if Gov. Schwarzenegger’s scorched earth budget is approved – a budget that slashes Proposition 98 public school spending from $42.2 billion this year all the way down to $44.7 billion next year. That should be proof enough that our math programs are suffering. As a public school parent, I have given this crisis a great deal of thought and have a modest suggestion to help weather these dark days. Maybe – as a temporary measure only – we should spend our school dollars on our schools. I realize that this is a radical departure from current practice, but desperate times require desperate measures. The Governor proposed spending $10,084 per student from all sources. Devoting all of this money to the classroom would require turning tens of thousands of school bureaucrats, consultants, advisors and specialists onto the streets with no means of support or marketable job skills, something that no enlightened social democracy should allow. So I will begin by excluding from this discussion the entire budget of the State Department of Education, as well as the pension system, debt service, special education, child care, nutrition programs and adult education. I also propose setting aside $3 billion to pay an additional 30,000 school bureaucrats $100,000-per-year (roughly the population of Monterey) with the proviso that they stay away from the classroom and pay their own hotel bills at conferences. This leaves a mere $6,937 per student, which, for the duration of the funding crisis, I propose devoting to the classroom. To illustrate how we might scrape by at this subsistence level, let’s use a hypothetical school of 180 students with only $1.2 million to get through the year. We have all seen the pictures of filthy bathrooms, leaky roofs, peeling paint and crumbling plaster to which our children have been condemned. I propose that we rescue them from this squalor by leasing out luxury commercial office space. Our school will need 4,800 square feet for five classrooms (the sixth class is gym). At $33 per foot, an annual lease will cost $158,400. This will provide executive washrooms, around-the-clock janitorial service, wall-to-wall carpeting, utilities and music in the elevators. We’ll also need new desks to preserve the professional ambiance. Next, we’ll need to hire five teachers – but not just any teachers. I propose hiring only associate professors from the California State University at their level of pay. Since university professors generally assign more reading, we’ll need 12 of the latest edition, hardcover books for each student at an average $75 per book, plus an extra $5 to have the student’s name engraved in gold leaf on the cover. Since our conventional gym classes haven’t stemmed the childhood obesity epidemic, I propose replacing them with an annual membership at a private health club for $39.95 per month. This would provide our children with a trained and courteous staff of nutrition and fitness counselors, aerobics classes and the latest in cardiovascular training technology. Finally, we’ll hire an $80,000 administrator with a $40,000 secretary because – well, I don’t know exactly why, but we always have. Our bare-bones budget comes to this: 5 classrooms $158,400 150 Desks @ $130 $19,500 180 annual health club memberships @ $480 $86,400 2,160 textbooks @ $80 $172,800 5 C.S.U. Associate Professors @ $67,093 $335,465 1 Administrator $80,000 1 Secretary $40,000 24% faculty and staff benefits $109,312 Offices, expenses and insurance $30,000 TOTAL $1,031,877 This budget leaves a razor-thin reserve of just $216,703 or $1,204 per pupil, which can pay for necessities like paper, pencils, personal computers and extra-curricular travel. After all, what’s the point of taking four years of French if you can’t see Paris in the spring? The school I have just described is the school we’re paying for. Maybe it’s time to ask why it’s not the school we’re getting. Other, wiser, governors have made the prudent decision not to ask such embarrassing questions of the education-industrial complex because it makes them very angry. Apparently the unions believe that with enough of a beating, Gov. Schwarzenegger will see things the same way. Perhaps. But there’s an old saying that you can’t fill a broken bucket by pouring more water into it. Maybe it’s time to fix the bucket. Senator McClintock represents the 19 th district in the California Legislature. His website address is www.sen.ca.gov/mcclintock.