Supreme Court gets it so wrong, it's disgusting

Read it at Michellemalkin.com. I don't have the heart to reprint it here.

Massachusett's Dem goes crazy...

Wow. This guy needs to be removed from his seat ASAP. This is disgusting.

A Massachusetts politician and defense attorney has touched off a firestorm with his shocking public vow to torment and "rip apart" child rape victims who take the witness stand if the state legislature passed stiff mandatory sentences for child sex offenders.

Rep. James Fagan, a Democrat, made the comments during debate last month on the state House floor.

"I'm gonna rip them apart," Fagan said of young victims during his testimony on the bill. "I'm going to make sure that the rest of their life is ruined, that when they’re 8 years old, they throw up; when they’re 12 years old, they won’t sleep; when they’re 19 years old, they’ll have nightmares and they’ll never have a relationship with anybody.”

Fagan said as a defense attorney it would be his duty to do that in order to keep his clients free from a "mandatory sentence of those draconian proportions."

What's wrong with the UW System

This, my friends, is what is wrong with the UW System.

The Board of Regents gave a $73,000 raise to University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly on Thursday, rewarding him for what its president called an outstanding performance.

In a closed-door meeting at UW-Milwaukee, the regents agreed to increase Reilly’s pay to nearly $414,600 on July 1 from its current $342,000, a 21 percent increase.

Are you freaking kidding me??? He gets a raise of $73,000, and my tuition goes up $265. Why don't we, instead of giving him a ridiculous raise, lower tuition? Don't worry, I'll answer that for you. That would be caring about the students. And why would they do that when they can make so much money off of us?

Subway - Anti Home Schooling

Subway, apparently to prevent home schoolers from pointing out their terrible spelling, have banned them from submitting essays for a contest they are holding.

Enter the Every Sandwich Tells a Story Contest for a change to win great prizes for your child’s school!

Here’s what you could win:

1 Grand Prize Winner:

– Athletic equipment for your child’s school ($5,000 value)
– Scholastic Gift Bastket (sic) for your home
– SUBWAY Card ($100 value)
– See your story published on www.subwaykids.com and in Scholastic Parent and Child magazine.

6 Runners-Up:

– Scholastic Gift Basket
– SUBWAY Card ($50 value)

…

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied (sic) States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted. [bold added]

What the hell does Subway have against home schoolers?

Michelle Malkin has more.

More here.

And here.

Looks like I, as a former home schooler, won't be eating at Subway until they issue a formal apology.

UPDATE:

Michelle Malkin posted this update earlier today.

A homeschooling parent received a response from the Subway sponsor of the contest:

Dear Christine,

We are deeply sorry that the Subway contest has offended you and thank you for voicing your concern. Our intention was never to make independent schooled children feel discriminated against or excluded from this specific promotion. Throughout the course of the year Scholastic runs a number of contests and sweepstakes that are open to all teachers and students. The eligibility of this contest in particular was solely put in place to award a large group of children with the grand prize of $5,000 worth of athletic equipment. We do however understand how home-schooled children could benefit from this type of prizing and will make sure eligibility is open to everyone in future promotions.

To show our gratitude for bringing this matter to our attention, please send us the ages of your children and your address and we would be happy to send you a complimentary book to share with them. We truly appreciate your feedback and will make sure a similar situation does not happen again.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me directly.

Best Regards,

Samantha Calastro

Scholastic Parent and Child

Glad to hear it.

What's wrong with education

Wisconsin and our Nation as a whole are lagging behind in education. The reason that the students in Wisconsin are no longer getting the “Grade A” education that they deserve is twofold. There are two factors that are hurting the children, the first being the actions of Wisconsin’s teacher’s union and the second being the shortfalls of standardized testing.

It is unfortunate that Wisconsin’s teacher’s union, WEAC (Wisconsin Education Association Council), has taken one of its taglines of “Every child deserves a good school” and perverted it to mean “Every teacher deserves a high-paying job, despite any and all shortcomings.” Earlier this year, WEAC came running to defend a teacher that was caught with over 1,500 pornographic images on his school computer. While WEAC is saying they’re simply asking for due process in the firing of the teacher, they are spending thousands and thousands of taxpayer’s dollars on litigation through appeals and obscure legal maneuvers, some of which have never been seen before in our state. It’s time for the premier organization for Wisconsin’s teachers to get its priorities straight: the students and their education.

The second reason why Wisconsin’s education system is failing its children is the phenomenon of “teaching to the test.” Teaching to the test is a not-so-new philosophy of teachers only covering the material that the students need to know in order to pass the standardized test that the school has to submit to the Federal and State government. While that sounds harmless, the shortfall comes with subject knowledge and critical thinking skills. Now more than ever critical thinking and overall knowledge is becoming a pre-requisite to being hired in an ever-widening array of fields, yet schools and teachers, desperate for that good test grade and the federal dollars that follow them, are bypassing that portion of education for the short-term gain of a higher test score. I will clarify, though, that I am not blaming the teacher for this phenomenon. The blame is to be cast almost entirely on the government’s infatuation with standardized testing.

Wisconsin and the country as a whole can not keep this trend of failing our children going. We are at a precipice, and the current unionization of teachers and the infatuation with standardized testing are pushing us over the edge. It is time to start pushing back.

What's wrong with Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s tax environment is in dire shape, and back in August of 2007, Governor Doyle gave a stellar example of why. On August 23, Doyle announced a $2 million grant for the Gehl company out of West Bend. The money was “to help Gehl Company expand their research and development and headquarters facilities in West Bend” and to “retain 191 jobs and create 87 new [ones].” Let us just examine that for a moment.

Gehl said that they wanted to move out of the state, and make their $20 million expansion somewhere else, but because of all the money that the city of West Bend, Washington County, and the state of Wisconsin gave them, they decided to stay. All totaled, the money came to over $7 million. Simple math shows that taxpayers are footing a bill of over $25,000 per job, and over $80,000 per new job. But my question is, why are the taxpayers paying businesses millions of dollars to stay in Wisconsin. The answer: we are taxing business out of business, and it takes the millions of dollars in incentives for them to stay.

Instead, Wisconsin should have a tax climate that encourages businesses like Gehl, and many others like it, to stay and expand in Wisconsin without massive government handouts. Wisconsin’s taxpayers can not afford to keep forking over millions of dollars whenever a business hints at leaving, and companies aren’t going to stop their leaving until the tax environment changes.

Finals...Finally

Well, hey there everyone (to all 9 or so dedicated readers)!

I would first like to apologize for being quite sketchy on the postings lately. Right now it's finals time, and I've been busier than usual. Most of the time I don't study for finals, but for some reason or another (mostly grades) I have decided to put a lot of effort into these finals.

I don't have much to comment on today, but I would like to clarify a few things.

1. I am looking forward to the new Indiana Jones movie. Rumor has it that it's going to be stellar.
2. I'm also looking forward to the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger's posthumous performance is looking to be excellent.
   
3. I am also looking forward to the second installment in the Narnia series. It's out now, but I haven't had the chance to see it. It also looks stellar, even better than the first.

That's all for today, but look forward to some new commentary and blogging in the near future.