GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Church fined for excessive tree pruning

Sunday, May 29, 2011

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/05/28/2333197/church-fined-for-improper-tree.html

Albemarle Road church fined $100 per branch for excessive tree pruning
By Brittany Penland Correspondent
Posted: Saturday, May. 28, 2011

*** begin quote ***

Every two to three years, Eddie Sales trims and prunes the crape myrtles at his church, Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church.

But this year, the city of Charlotte cited the church for improperly pruning its trees.

*** and ***

“The purpose of the tree ordinance is to protect trees,” Johnson said. “Charlotte has always been known as the city of trees. When we take down trees, we need to replace these trees.”

Individuals who would like to trim their trees should call the city foresters to receive a free permit to conduct the landscape work.

Foresters will then meet with the person receiving the permit and give instructions on how to properly trim their trees, Johnson said.

The state Division of Forestry recommends that anyone trimming trees should be certified by the National Horticulture Board, but certification is not required to receive a permit.

On private property, fine amounts are based on the size of the tree improperly pruned. For small trees such as cherry trees or crape myrtles, the fine is $75 per tree. Excessive cutting can increase that fine to $100 per branch.

For large trees such as oaks or maples, the fine is $150 per tree.

Because there is a widespread lack of understanding on how to prune crape myrtles in the Charlotte area, Johnson said, residents found in violation regarding these trees are asked to simply replace them, and the fine will be lifted.

*** end quote ***

Guess down in North Carolina, they never heard of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. Popularly, know as Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Harassment, and Freedom from Takings.

I know what needs “pruning” in Charlotte — Gooferment.

You have to be kidding me!

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: ITUNESU is a treasure chest

Sunday, May 29, 2011

http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/whats-on.html

*** begin quote ***

More than 800 universities have active iTunes U sites. About half of these institutions — including Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, and UC Berkeley — distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store.

In the Beyond Campus section of iTunes U, students and faculty can access a wealth of content from distinguished entities such as MoMA, the New York Public Library, Public Radio International, and PBS stations.

*** end quote ***

Stunning! 350,000 HOURS of lecture.

I’m doing a Yale University course now.

Did I mention “free”?

Yeah, you need a computer and an inet connect. That’s not free.

But ITUNES that “delivers” it is free.

It’s amazing.

Colleges and universities are in big trouble.

As are all Gooferment Skrules!

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POLITICAL: At least were not as bad as West Virginia school-wise?

Saturday, May 28, 2011

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=303697#ixzz1NeE2PRal

Homeschooling and the clueless Miss Marple

*** begin quote ***

Nevertheless, perhaps we can all agree with Miss Marple in one respect. West Virginia does need more regulation of education. Consequently, as a public service, here is my modest proposal for reforming West Virginia’s public schools: Homeschooling parents should regulate Miss Marple and the West Virginia government school system until the students in the government schools for which she is responsible outperform homeschooled children academically.

Unfortunately, this recommendation is not likely to be accepted, which means that most state superintendents of education around the country will continue to be able to tell parents upset about the job their local schools are doing, “Well, at least we’re not West Virginia.” In the meantime, as far as homeschooling is concerned, Miss Marple needs to get a clue.

*** end quote ***

Or are we?

Let me muse on that using my usual three tine fork.

# – # – #

IMMORAL

Is it moral for that criminal gang in Trenton or DC to “regulate” or “operate” Gooferment Skrules?

First, during the Cold War, we decried the Soviet and Chinese schools as “propaganda factories” that “brainwashed” the youth and political prisoners. We see North Korea as the ultimate of a brainwashed society where all good comes from the “great leader”. How is the current system of public education any different than that. Isn’t the Gooferment Skrules “brainwashing future voters?

Second, freedom of religion? Don’t parents get to educate their children in the religion o their choice? No, Gooferment Skrules teach “Secular Progressive” values and “Earth Worship”. Whole generations have lost their religions by the operation of “public education”.

Third, isn’t it immoral to force some people to pay for the education of other people’s children? I don’t have any input into the decision to have these children; I don’t feed them or clothe them. But I get to pay to educate them. The Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerzee with its property taxes literally forces old people from their homes by virtue of the property tax.

Four, Gooferment Skrules have “Teachers’ Unions”. There’s a corrupt circle. Those unions work for the election of politicians. Those politicians appoint the bureaucrats. The bureaucrats “negotiate” contracts with the unions. How’s that for a feedback loop for corruption.

Five, Gooferment Skrules have an infrastructure of pigs that feed at the trough of Gooferment Skrules. Those pigs give money to politicians and bureaucrats to ensure that the trough is full. They also vote for the politicians to continue it. In any school budget election, you can count on all the teachers and the pigs to vote to spend more.

Six, “it’s for the children”, what greater fraud is perpetrated on the children than to pretend what is being done to them is “education”. Have you ever talked to the output of the Gooferment Skrules? Permanently damaged goods. Any the statistics are “managed”; just dig into any number and you’ll find just how badly they are inflated.

INEFFECTIVE

Just look at the Gooferment’s own reports, Gooferment Skrules are a failure at education. Look at that high school exam from the turn of the century, I’m not sure I could pass it.

INEFFICIENT

By any measure the costs far exceed either private, parochial, or home schooling.

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Long ago, I proposed a 40 year plan to get out of this particular hole.

The first half, 20 years, was a gradual extraction of the Gooferment from the operation of Gooferment Skrules. All parents would get a voucher for the cost of a year’s education. 5% a year were freed to seek education elsewhere. At the end of 20 years or so, then all education would be done in private schools.

The second half, another 20 years, the amount of the voucher would be reduced 5% per year. All parents would begin to pay the cost of educating the children they decided to have. At the end of of 20 years or so, parents would be paying for the education of their children.

The Gooferment would be out of the education business.

And, we’ll all be better off.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Google Advisor for financial comparisons

Saturday, May 28, 2011

http://advisor.google.com/

Making financial comparisons easy with Google Advisor
Posted: 19 May 2011 12:13 PM PDT

*** begin quote ***

Financial decisions may be some of the most difficult decisions we face—whether it’s finding the right credit card or understanding the impact of paying an extra point on a mortgage. And these days, it seems like we have more financial options than ever.

To help solve these problems, we began testing a mortgage comparison tool in 2009 and have added other financial products such as credit cards, CDs, checking, and savings accounts. Today, we’re rolling these tools into one place: Google Advisor, a site designed to help you quickly find relevant financial products from many providers and compare them side-by-side. Google Advisor is currently only available in the U.S.

*** end quote ***

Google is a strange collection of interesting stuff. I guess that’s a business plan.

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: 90k Gooferments!

Friday, May 27, 2011

http://www.impactlab.net/2011/05/26/a-country-of-90000-governments/

May 26th, 2011 at 10:24 am
A Country of 90,000 Governments

*** begin quote ***

Backcasting is a tool used by futurists to look at the present from some point in the future.

In much the same way we stand in amazement as we read about the Salem witch trials, or 18th century doctors who used bleeding to cure diseases, or Polynesian tribes who sacrificed virgins to appease the volcano-gods, a country comprised of 90,000 governments is destined to appear equally ludicrous in the future.

One hundred years in the future, people in 2110 will look back at this era of history and marvel at the insanity of our times. They will be amazed at how people managed to live in a country with more laws than anyone can count, a tax code that, according to NPR, is over 67,000 pages long with 1,638 different tax forms, and a justice system that controls one out of every 31 people in the country and has the highest incarceration rate of any nation in history.

All of our defensive posturing for maintaining the status quo will quickly deteriorate into the equivalent of modern caveman thinking as future generations make us the punchline of their jokes and the universal symbol of “what not to do.”

*** end quote ***

Argh!

What more can I say?

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Arnold and my apologies to the pigs

Friday, May 27, 2011

http://www.keywestlou.com/2011/05/what-beautiful-day-fantastic-weather-we.html

My Life in Key West

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011

*** begin quote ***

One issue I am going to get into is sex. The Arnold Schwartzenneger situation has permeated the media the last few days.

I am 75 years old. I have lived through much of the sexual cultural mores in the United States. I can recall the 1950s when females were reluctant to have sex outside of marriage for fear of pregnancy. Then came the birth control pill in the l960s. The sexual world changed! Many women discovered their sexual drives were comparable to mens’. They could enjoy without fear of pregnancy.

At the beginning of the post pill discovery era, married women were still less prone to have sex outside their marriage. Such has changed over the years. Statistics now show a growing trend in women of all ages who cheat outside marriage.

I am neither being moralistic nor judging. However, one thing has become clear to me over the years. Marital infidelity is a two way street. For every man who pulls his fly down, there is a woman who pulls her panties down!

I have two points. First, lets get off the man’s back. Women are playing big time, also. Second, the brief history I have set forth clearly shows a changing sex culture over the last 60 years. Understand that change and recall it before coming down on the man alone.

Excuse me for being Biblical, but let he/she who is without sin cast the first stone.

I will concede that there still remain those without sin. One stroke of the brush does not paint all persons.

*** end quote ***

Maybe I am cranky because I missed the sexual revolution. And, maybe I am moralistic and judgmental. But I think that Arnold is yet another example of powerful men being pigs. (And that’s really insulting to the pigs.)

Where are the inspirational men of this age?

Where are the Saint Josephs, who pick up their burden and carry it courageously, uncomplaining, with dignity even to death?

Where are the heros?

A powerful man fornicates with a servant. Remember all the outrage when DNA showed that Jefferson fathers a child with his slave. At least, that was considered acceptable conduct in that era.

What lessons are being taught to future generations?

Each week, I read obits for my fellow Jasper alumni. More often than not, they have 40, 50, or 60 year marriages. Those guys are heroic. As any “happily” married man can tell you.

From a morality perspective, the family has throughout time been the model for raising children. Not a village, not a single mother, but a totally committed man and woman. (The jury is still out on a gay couple. But, if our moral objective is a safe and loving home for children who would otherwise be in an orphanage or foster care, then we have to open minded. Besides, as long as some one doesn’t use force of fraud on me, then I should MYOB.)

These men, (or if the women do it), are despicable.

And, we’re going to flounder on the rocks of the sexual libertine movement. We need the population growth that birth control and abortion prevents. How is Japan doing with an aging nation? How are India and China doing without enough young girls to satisfy all the young boys?

Now, I don’t know if it’s God, the Universe, or evolution, but we should mess with what works unless we are “real sure” of the consequences.

Argh!

Now I know I am not with out “sin”, but I do know that the old Catholic school Brothers and Nuns were right about “that’s for when you’re married”. It was the era of chaste women and gallant men. And, “Catholic girls start much too late”.

Even in my first working days, I heard “don’t dip your pen in company ink”.

Maybe I’m the dino, but I can’t see how these men are anything but pigs. And, again, my apologies to the pigs.

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Posted by reinkefj

IPAD: Free dictionary app

Thursday, May 26, 2011

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/26/merriam-webster-dictionary-now-available-on-ipad-for-free/

Merriam-Webster Dictionary now available on iPad for free

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on May 26th 2011 at 7:00AM

*** begin quote ***

It’s certainly not the only dictionary app available, and the renowned Oxford English Dictionary has its own edition available for the iPad already. But that one costs US$54.99, and the ad-supported Webster dictionary benefits not only from a lack of initial cost, but features like voice search, audio pronunciations, a search history and a browse mode that lets you search and learn new words as you like.

*** end quote ***

Wow, the inet and it’s “handmaiden” the IPAD are really changing the world.

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Posted by reinkefj

ADMINISTRIVIA: Quick march

Thursday, May 26, 2011
Didn’t work. Can’t add music to a free blog. Bummer.
@import url(http://www.freemp3zz.com/css/embed.css);

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: NEW “Read the Bills Act”

Thursday, May 26, 2011

http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/introducing-the-new-read-the-bills-act

May 20, 2011
Introducing the NEW “Read the Bills Act”
Posted by Jim Babka

*** begin quote ***

Quote of the Day: “A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either.” — Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

A few months ago we announced pledges from two members of the House, and one Senator, Rand Paul, to introduce our Downsize DC Agenda bills — “Read the Bills,” “Write the Laws,” and “One Subject at a Time.”

*** and ***

We’ll be showing you the results of this work in stages, starting today, with the NEW “Read the Bills Act” (RTBA). The new RTBA . . .

* Lists the Constitutional provisions that authorize it, in compliance with the Enumerated Powers rule

* Has improved findings — these are the statements of fact that justify the legislation

* Places one new restriction on Congress — forcing them to give the public advance notice of when a vote is scheduled, which will thwart legislation by surprise, and further protect the public’s opportunity to read each bill

* Improves the ability of citizens to defend themselves against “laws” passed in violation of RTBA

*** end quote ***

https://secure.downsizedc.org/files/rtba-2011.pdf

Let’s hold the congresscritters’ feet to the fire.

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Posted by reinkefj

administrivia: testing update from iPad app

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

At shogun, there is a benefit for the RU player tonight. To bad there wasn’t more pr!

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Posted by reinkefj

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