Just to let everyone know that I haven't disappeared from the face of the earth.
I sincerely thank all of you for all of your words of encouragement and hope, not to mention your prayers. They mean a lot to me.
Forgive me for not keeping you posted, but blogging needed to take a backseat to what's going on in my personal life. I will try to post something of significance soon, but I have a lot of work to do if this is ever going to work.
To update you on the situation, we have made no decision. We have decided to take it slow and become friends and see if that works. We never did that the first time around. There are other complications, but they are of a rather more personal nature. In other words, none of your business.
The divorce wasn't completely her fault. Far from it. I have a lot to work on, too. It's going to take time and, being a single-daddy, that is one thing I have very little of.
Again, I thank you all. I need all of the support that I can get at the moment.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Stay Tuned
You'll have to forgive me, dear reader, if my posting is a bit light in the days to come. There are big doings at The Exile's homestead.
It is somewhat personal, but let's just say that I may need to change my profile so that it no longer reads "single daddy". What's even more important is that my daughter may just get her mommy back. My ex-wife and I are currently in negotiations about getting back together.
I've always loved the woman, but she had some serious issues that she wouldn't deal with. She seems to have dealt with most of them now. I am extremely proud of her.
Blogging will have to take a backseat to working things out between her and I, but I will still be posting as often as possible. Even she can't shut me up.
It is somewhat personal, but let's just say that I may need to change my profile so that it no longer reads "single daddy". What's even more important is that my daughter may just get her mommy back. My ex-wife and I are currently in negotiations about getting back together.
I've always loved the woman, but she had some serious issues that she wouldn't deal with. She seems to have dealt with most of them now. I am extremely proud of her.
Blogging will have to take a backseat to working things out between her and I, but I will still be posting as often as possible. Even she can't shut me up.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Where Have all the Greenbacks Gone?
The next time that you hear a teacher whining about how little they're paid, or how they're spending their own money in the classroom, think about this:
Here in Minnesota we spend half of the state budget on education. Half of every dollar that i give to the state government in taxes goes to education. Half! When is it going to be enough?
That means that in this state we spend about $10,000 per child per year.
I went through my daughter's yearbook and counted the number of students per classroom. There about 20 in each class. The number is actually a bit hgher, but we'll stick with that for simplicity's sake.
If you multiply that $10,000 by the 20 students, you get $200,000 per classroom! $200,000 to run a room that's half the size of my house! Every year!
My daughter's school isn't that big. There are about 30 classrooms in it.
Multiply that $200,000 by the 30 classrooms, and this school is running on $6 million per year. $6 million! $6,000,000 to run this dinky little elementary school!
Alright, so let's talk about teacher's salaries for a moment.
Let's say that each of these 30 teachers is making about $45,000 per year (for working eight months out of that year, I might add). And we'll add 10 additional staff for secretaries, custodians, etc.
So if you take those 40 staff members and multiply it by $45,000 you come up with $1,800,000 per year in salaries for the employees of this school.
Subtract that from the $6,000,000 from above and you wind up with $4.2 million dollars that's unaccounted for.
OK, so where could that money be going? Granted, they need to charter school buses, And buy new books every few years. I'll even give them 10 administrators in the district office. It shouldn't take more than that to run this little school. Utility bills are a cost, but I know what it costs to run a building 4 times the size of that one, and it doesn't put a dent in $4.2 million.
But they have the physical building, they have the desks and chairs, they have all of the computers and AV equipment, all of the gym equipment, all of the playground equipment, I can't think of anything major that they need to buy.
And when you factor in the fact that most of the supplies are "donated" by the parents, you can't even factor that in. I put "donated" in quotation marks because, what really happens, is that you're sent a list of things that "your" child "needs", and when you bring the stuff to school the first day, the first thing they do is collect it all and put it in one big communal bucket for all of the kids to use. And I do use the word "communal" with full knowledge of the implication of that word. The school is, after all, crawling with Lefties.
(I bought the cheapest garbage that I could for the list, and then loaded Monkey Girl up with the cool stuff for her own personal use. Piss on them.)
You also have the parent volunteers, who do much of the planning of events and activities, so the school isn't paying for that, either.
And I'm sure that there are a few things that I've forgotten, so let's be very generous and give them half of that $4.2 million for expenses. That leaves $2,100,000 completely unaccounted for. Where's it going?
Easy. Instead of the 10 administrators that it takes to run the place (and that's being generous, too) there are probably 40.
They're using all of this money to hire unnecessary workers to jack up their union rolls, which buys them more clout in the Legislature, which gets them even more money to hire even more unnecessary workers to jack up their union rolls even higher, which buys them even more clout in the Legislature...and pretty soon half of every dollar sent to the government goes to education.
So the next time that you hear a teacher whining about their salary, or how they're spending their own money in the classroom, you tell them to quit whining to you, and go whine to their union representative.
If they'd quit playing politics, and start putting the money that we give them towards the causes that we give it to them for, they could double the teachers' salaries and cut class sizes in half.
But if they did that, they wouldn't be able to hire more unnecessary workers to jack up their union rolls. Like all good Democrat problems, no matter how much they whine, they don't want it solved. They just want more of your money.
Here in Minnesota we spend half of the state budget on education. Half of every dollar that i give to the state government in taxes goes to education. Half! When is it going to be enough?
That means that in this state we spend about $10,000 per child per year.
I went through my daughter's yearbook and counted the number of students per classroom. There about 20 in each class. The number is actually a bit hgher, but we'll stick with that for simplicity's sake.
If you multiply that $10,000 by the 20 students, you get $200,000 per classroom! $200,000 to run a room that's half the size of my house! Every year!
My daughter's school isn't that big. There are about 30 classrooms in it.
Multiply that $200,000 by the 30 classrooms, and this school is running on $6 million per year. $6 million! $6,000,000 to run this dinky little elementary school!
Alright, so let's talk about teacher's salaries for a moment.
Let's say that each of these 30 teachers is making about $45,000 per year (for working eight months out of that year, I might add). And we'll add 10 additional staff for secretaries, custodians, etc.
So if you take those 40 staff members and multiply it by $45,000 you come up with $1,800,000 per year in salaries for the employees of this school.
Subtract that from the $6,000,000 from above and you wind up with $4.2 million dollars that's unaccounted for.
OK, so where could that money be going? Granted, they need to charter school buses, And buy new books every few years. I'll even give them 10 administrators in the district office. It shouldn't take more than that to run this little school. Utility bills are a cost, but I know what it costs to run a building 4 times the size of that one, and it doesn't put a dent in $4.2 million.
But they have the physical building, they have the desks and chairs, they have all of the computers and AV equipment, all of the gym equipment, all of the playground equipment, I can't think of anything major that they need to buy.
And when you factor in the fact that most of the supplies are "donated" by the parents, you can't even factor that in. I put "donated" in quotation marks because, what really happens, is that you're sent a list of things that "your" child "needs", and when you bring the stuff to school the first day, the first thing they do is collect it all and put it in one big communal bucket for all of the kids to use. And I do use the word "communal" with full knowledge of the implication of that word. The school is, after all, crawling with Lefties.
(I bought the cheapest garbage that I could for the list, and then loaded Monkey Girl up with the cool stuff for her own personal use. Piss on them.)
You also have the parent volunteers, who do much of the planning of events and activities, so the school isn't paying for that, either.
And I'm sure that there are a few things that I've forgotten, so let's be very generous and give them half of that $4.2 million for expenses. That leaves $2,100,000 completely unaccounted for. Where's it going?
Easy. Instead of the 10 administrators that it takes to run the place (and that's being generous, too) there are probably 40.
They're using all of this money to hire unnecessary workers to jack up their union rolls, which buys them more clout in the Legislature, which gets them even more money to hire even more unnecessary workers to jack up their union rolls even higher, which buys them even more clout in the Legislature...and pretty soon half of every dollar sent to the government goes to education.
So the next time that you hear a teacher whining about their salary, or how they're spending their own money in the classroom, you tell them to quit whining to you, and go whine to their union representative.
If they'd quit playing politics, and start putting the money that we give them towards the causes that we give it to them for, they could double the teachers' salaries and cut class sizes in half.
But if they did that, they wouldn't be able to hire more unnecessary workers to jack up their union rolls. Like all good Democrat problems, no matter how much they whine, they don't want it solved. They just want more of your money.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Odd...
Ever since I re-enabled my Blogger comments so that I could retrieve my old trolls ' comments for my Trophy Room, I have gotten no SPAM in my Blogger comments, even though I haven't turned on "word verification".
I used to get tons of it, which is why I went to Haloscan.
Not that it matters, but does anyone know why this might be? I'm a VB guy, I don't know much about web programming.
And I would suggest to anyone who's commenting, please use Haloscan (the comment link on the right, of course). Blogger's comments were only enabled to retrieve old troll's comments and they will go away again, eventually.
I used to get tons of it, which is why I went to Haloscan.
Not that it matters, but does anyone know why this might be? I'm a VB guy, I don't know much about web programming.
And I would suggest to anyone who's commenting, please use Haloscan (the comment link on the right, of course). Blogger's comments were only enabled to retrieve old troll's comments and they will go away again, eventually.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Dear Santa
For Christmas I would like world peace, an end to hunger and want, and an extremely painful (and funny) death for all liberals.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Should Be Fascinating
I wonder if she'll blame it on the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy?
From C-SPAN:
"This week on 'After Words' journalist Mary Mapes explains her investigative story on George W. Bush's National Guard record that aired on 60 Minutes II. Her new book about the experience is titled Truth and Duty: The Press, The President, and the Privilege of Power. Ms. Mapes tells her version of the controversy over the segment, and the ensuing internal investigation at CBS that led to Dan Rather's resignation as anchor of "CBS Evening News," and her own dismissal. She is interviewed by Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center."
Saturday, December 3rd, 8:00 P.M. ET
Replayed Sunday, December 4 at 6:00 pm and at 9:00 pm.
From C-SPAN:
"This week on 'After Words' journalist Mary Mapes explains her investigative story on George W. Bush's National Guard record that aired on 60 Minutes II. Her new book about the experience is titled Truth and Duty: The Press, The President, and the Privilege of Power. Ms. Mapes tells her version of the controversy over the segment, and the ensuing internal investigation at CBS that led to Dan Rather's resignation as anchor of "CBS Evening News," and her own dismissal. She is interviewed by Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center."
Saturday, December 3rd, 8:00 P.M. ET
Replayed Sunday, December 4 at 6:00 pm and at 9:00 pm.
No Comment Necessary
"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees."
- Bill Clinton - speech, August 12, 1993
"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans."
- Bill Clinton - USA Today, March 11, 1993
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Merry Christmas, ACLU!
The American Princess turned me on to a great idea: send the ACLU a Christmas card!
Go here to get the address, then find the most religious card that you possibly can, and snail mail it to them.
Will it change their minds? No, they hate this country. But they have to pay somebody to open all of this stuff, which means that's one less person to challenge the American way of life.
And all of you fellow bloggers out there, spread the word.
Go here to get the address, then find the most religious card that you possibly can, and snail mail it to them.
Will it change their minds? No, they hate this country. But they have to pay somebody to open all of this stuff, which means that's one less person to challenge the American way of life.
And all of you fellow bloggers out there, spread the word.
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