Dan, at this point I urge you to pack up and move to Zimbabwe where you can be worshipped as the blue haired god of Spam (low salt of course). Free speech has always been the right to voice your beliefs on the condition that your words aren't ment to cause harm to another person. I have no problem with laws that punish those who use false words as weapons, but I do have a problem with people who want to return things to the way they never were.
I've got no problem with people like Dan yelling whatever comes to them without thinking it through. Personally, they make the world i live in interesting. In any event slander is incredibly hard to prosecute. You have to prove that someone like yourself intended to say things like "Dan Juola is a blue-haired petafile" or "Dan Juola is a Canadian feed lot" to cause harm, not just that he/she spoke a lie. Common Dan, you should know that.
Party on Free Speech, Party on...
Dan, I'm relatively sure that the word "French" is firmly planted in front of fries and toast. Personally, any country that cloaks a desire to protect its share of oil contracts with the existing Iraqi government (for France its near 80%, and France stands to lose all of it when Sadam's regime is removed) under a flag of peace, should keep its place in front of two - more or less infamous - icons of the fast-food industry.
Whether or not I used rex?s information is irrelevant, it happens explain a great number of the myths and inaccurate statements that revolve around school spending, and deserves to be heard. As for your solutions, god willing we may someday have an administration competent enough to follow them through on them. Right now, school spending seems to be closed to ideas like yours, regardless of how logical they may be (the average processor speed on the new dells is around 2 Ghz). We need to change the way that we go about spending money. With regards to the proceeds that high school sports generates, its true that little to none of any fees collected will ever find its way back into the sports programs that earned it. For years Hopkins was able to get away with using a bottomless pool of referendum/property tax money with minimal concern for how effectively that money is being used. With shrinking budgets, school districts a like Hopkins are shooting themselves in the foot with decades old spending practices that breed poor use of resources and beaucratic waste. In regards to AP, everyone is going to feel the pinch. I?m all for using that "bricks and mortar" money to subsidize tests, but right now the law doesn?t allow for that, and the school through a combo of shrinking funds and ineffective spending doesn't have the money to fill the void the state legislature created. Spending practices need to change as the tax payers who have unselfishly donated so much of their money to our education deserve nothing less than effective and well thought out spending.
While it's true that the Hopkins School District does seem to have a misguided sense of reality, it's important to remember a couple things...
1.) Where we stand and why we're here...
Hopkins, because of the success of the last referendum, has reached the state mandated maximum of how much it can spend on educating students, paying teachers, and funding classes. As a result it?s actually illegal for Hopkins to spend any more on education. In previous years, Hopkins was able to maintain its curriculum because of a community so devoted to supporting its schools, that other cash strapped school districts would probably kill for it. Case in Point: Hopkins voters have passed every referendum that the school district has asked for dramatically buffering the effect of budget cuts, while nearby districts like Osseo have been forced to drastic cuts to curriculum. Due to inflation, a shrinking tax base to draw from, and other sources, simply maintaining the level of education opportunity possible in recent years has become impossible.
2.) Why are we spending it the way we are...
State regulations divide each districts funding into two "pots," with a maximum limit set on both intended to equalize education opportunities. On the left you have education and on the right you have "bricks and mortar" (building maintenance). Because of state law, Hopkins is quickly running out of money in the education pot that the last referendum provided, while at the same time, the "bricks and mortar" pot is closer to full than ever. The reason that more isn't spent on education is because state law explicitly forbids the transferring of funds between the two pots. The results are the frivolous building projects that the school plans to undertake in the coming months/years. The only exception to this is the cafeteria. The current cafeteria is in violation of state regulations that dictate that for every student there must be X amount of space. Because the High School Student body continues to grow so rapidly, the cafeteria has to be remodeled or rebuilt regardless of whether the school wants to or not. The football field, the new auditorium, and the seemingly endless amounts of new computers to name a few are indeed examples of unnecessary spending. With regards to the AP tests, those we're supplemented solely by the state, not the district and were an early target of a state government eager to cut costs.
3.) Where are the priorities?
Schools have been forced to change their priorities from constantly improving the quality of their education to simply maintaining as much of their curriculum as possible. In Hopkins, the continued extent of Bricks and Mortar spending has been shifted to the forefront now that the district has no where to turn to keep educational programs; but seems to have more money than it knows what to do with to spend on building maintenance and/or improvement. Hopkins has reached the end of one of the longest leashes in the state of Minnesota and is beginning to feel the effects that other districts have been forced to deal with for years. Hopkins students have had it pretty good as far as education goes and despite the budget cuts will continue to enjoy a substantial advantage in opportunity compared to other schools. The bottom line, Hopkins is going to have to learn to learn with less money.
Ode to spam
osama bin laden's a hypocrite
hes smart but hes got the morals of a tin can
the taliban was his biggests fan
and their leaders as smart as a can of spam
toasters can fly
osama's high
V8 splash is made with Yellow 5
Please stop acting like the first thing that pops into my mind is war. No one in their right mind would ever choose war over peaceful resolution. However, the time for diplomacy has long since past. Over a decade ago, following the war in the Gulf, diplomatic efforts began to ensure that the world would never need to go to war over Iraq again. Sadam was unwilling to pay the price for his attempted conquest of Kuwait and according to the "Second report under resolution 715" (UN Security Counsel) Sadam had already begun to evade or disregard essential steps toward peace as early as October 1992, barely two years after the end of the conflict, was written using information gathered from UN and US forces in Iraq. In the next six years, UN and US personnel documented sporadic Iraqi co-operation and compliance with UN mandates. UNSCOM, the division of the UN responsible for finding out if Sadam was complying, was beginning to face significant resistance from the Iraqi. This lead to documented attempts by Iraq to prevent the inspectors from doing their job. All culminating in 1998 when the Iraqi Government officially ordered the removal of the inspectors even though they were UN mandated. In the year before their removal, UNSCOM inspectors had been organizing the dismantling of weapons that Sadam had built since the Gulf War. Sadam has no regard for the world around him. He has no regard for the welfare of his own people as seen by his use of chemical weapons on his own populous and his use of Iraqi Civilians as human shields. To him, whether his people eat or starve is irrelevant, as he's preoccupied with the state of his military. The man has no intention of going away peacefully and every intention of evading the consequences of his actions. He has systematically defied every attempt to prevent the very crisis that we find ourselves faced with today. There is a very fine line between national sovereignty and global stability. Once a nation crosses that line it becomes the responsibility to contain the rogue nation and take steps to prevent it from ever happening again. The Iraqi Government under Sadam has again become a clear and present danger to global stability. We are back to square one. The situation in Iraq is no better off than it was ten years ago because Sadam Hussein has and will continue to refuse to accept the consequences of his decisions. If I am wrong and war is avoidable, then we are all the better knowing that the problem in Iraq was solved without conflict. However I have seen little to indicate that a peace deal is possible, and even less to suggest that Sadam would abide by the terms of such a deal if it was reached. The world's dealings with Sadam have been met with little more than manipulative lies and broken promises from Baghdad. For over a decade, Sadam has had the opportunity to improve the condition of his people. Instead, he's slaughtered them by the thousands (some reports place this figure in the millions). Sadam has had the chance to reconcile with the global community, instead he has done nothing but provoke them. War is a terrible thing, but Sadam, through his own madness, has deliberately steered both Iraq and the world into this conflict. Sadam's actions over the last 11 years have proven his sees peaceful intervention as a method of manipulating the global community. The US has is finally taking steps to end the decade long appeasement of a madman by enforcing the UN resolutions Sadam regarded as irrelevant and speaking to him in the only language he understands: force.
In this world derranged political ideology we some how wind up in Hopkins. Instead of taking pride in our school district's academics we should immediately turn our attention to the shear number of rebels without a cause. Free Speech is all great and wonderful, but that doesnt mean we should just say or do what our impulses tell us. The less then stellar walkout became little more than a congregation of young people who seemed to be using the Iraq issue as a publicity stunt that crashed in the hanger. Everyone is entitled to have and express their opinion, but petty little exploits like what happened today do nothing more than deligitimize your stance in the eyes of those your trying to win over, no matter how justified you are in your beliefs. Seeing how i've been labeled a war hawk, all of americas esteemed liberals and/or 3rd partiers will probably say this is a load of shit. All i can say to them, the only way anyone of a differing stance is ever going to take you seriously is when you stop acting shocked that there are people in the world who dont agree with you, and stop treating them like the anti-christ.
Andrew you shouldn't be so quick to brand me as a blind patriot. You have this steadfast devotion to an organization that while, yes has helped mitigate many global conflicts and helped neutralize a great deal of conflicts, has shown an inability to follow through on its word. Had the UN acquired some decent sized balls, and the courage to follow through on its word despite international opposition, then I would probably have qualms about US intervention. However, the UN for all of its accomplishments has shown a chronic ability to ignore those "pesky" resolutions that demand it make a choice that will make some nations unhappy. THE POINT IS, Those promises were made by a COALITION (as in more than just the United States) of nations dammit. And as a result, for supporting the passage of these, France, Russia, Germany, and any other nation who supported the resolutions to disarm Iraq, are summarily obliged to follow through on them, even when there is opposition. France in particular is not innocent, they have tremendous oil agreements in place with Iraq for its oil and would bring billions of dollars to France in the form of oil refining. And yet, the league of bleeding hearts and mindless protesters, continues to blame this problem on the US. Its time the world took its head out of its ass and realized that IRAQ is the one at fault for this escalation in conflict. Sadam Hussein knew what he was doing when he defied those 12 resolutions to disarm, and he has slipped through the cracks again and again. The global community seems oblivious to the fact that the US is simply enforcing the consequences of breaking the rules, Iraq and no one else, started this so called "blood thirsty American war" (this would qualify as sarcastic) when it first defied a resolution to disarm. Holding the US responsible for doing what the UN has shown a chronic inability to do, increases the level of mindless following. For someone so in touch with the world, I find it hilarious, that you somehow turn a blind eye to the millions of mindless "supports of peace" (the continuation of appeasement to a psycho (sadam) is more fitting) clogging the streets of the worlds cities, fighting for a maniacal madman (Sadam) and his sickening regime. You want blind following of a cause, hell, these zombies are delivering it to your door.
Recipe for UN...
1 Part General Assembly
1 Part Security Council
1 part USA
Note: keep French and Russian components in separate bowl to prevent rampant ineffectiveness...
Ok, this UN idea, oh so very flawed. While it is true that the UN has helped mitigate a number of global conflicts, the have become an organization with balls the size of peas. Heck they had a great idea, lets name Libya head of the Human rights council. They have sat on their ass watching Sadam Hussein defy its resolutions like they never existed. Something like 12 resolutions since the Gulf war have been passed to peaceably remove weapons from a man hell-bent on using them. Iraq has openly defied resolution after and watched the world play right into his hands. Now a worldwide league of bleeding hearts has come to the defense of this maniacal madman. I?m sick and tired of hearing about how America has no right to disarm him. We are simply the only nation on earth with the mental capacity to see through Sadam and the balls to enforce the conditions of the agreements that the Security Council, not just the united states, agreed to. Those include the complete dismantling of Sadam?s weapon program of which Baghdad has both conceded exist and refused to destroy. In further violation of UN resolutions he has begun to retrofit his rockets to go farther than ever before placing the entire middle east at risk. Iraq is a rogue, a volatile threat to not only the national security of the United States but to the stability and security of the Middle East. As for intense opposition, a great deal of Those Arab leaders and populations who so often blast the US, have documented their support for Sadam's overthrow, they've just managed to do it while the cameras were off, and they knew no one was listening. Then there?s this, we'll be killing innocent people. First of all, let's just overlook the thousands of Iraqi?s that Sadam has had killed, and his use of biological/chemical weapons on them. As for the war serving US national interests, even if that is the case, if that happens to be a side result of the enforcement of broken resolutions that were meant to end a threat to global stability, then its fine with me. This isn't a matter of liberal vs. conservative its a matter of enforcing the rules that seek to keep men like Sadam from becoming a threat. Sadam has had his turn at the wheel of diplomacy and made a laughing stock of efforts to peaceably disarm him, now its time to bring the battle to him.
