Cool and overcast again, some possibility of rain. It was misty in several places as I drove around Thursday. No real rain though. I don’t think it ever got hotter than about 64F either. Pretty depressing and dreary overall. And today should be the same, joy.
Did my pickups in 3 of the 4 corners of Houston. Lots of driving. Almost all of it for resale, although a couple of items might end up in my stacks. Received some packages that I was waiting for too. Mostly it’s stuff to fix stuff for resale or my use. I like fixing stuff, but the endless list can be oppressive.
Plan for today is try for a minor dropoff, try to take some stuff to my secondary, do one pickup, and load for the trip to the BOL for the weekend. I scored another kayak, only $73, so I’ll be strapping that to the top of the other stuff on the truck… which will mostly be patio furniture, but may also include a loveseat. I should be a right proper Fred Sanford, or Jed Clampitt when I’m fully loaded up. Hope I can find enough straps.
I’ll be on the end of a thin pipe for a few days so if stuff is happening, go ahead and link…
I’ve got a list of stuff I’d like to get done this weekend. We’ll see what the universe has in mind. I’m hoping to get at least some of it done but I never can predict…
I should hit Lowes for some stuff before I head up too. I’ve got what I need for the main project, but maybe not for a couple of secondary options. And my wife needs some 1/4 round for her flooring project. A right Fred Sanford…
Always be working to improve your situation. Always be learning and trying new things. Keep meeting new people. And stack like your life depends on it.
nick
While eating lunch on the UW Madison campus last week, I listened as one of the university’s paid ESI experts held court with a group of undergraduate coeds at the next table over. From what I gathered, the girls were hoping to get jobs working in that administration office, but the consultant dropped the bad news that they were overstaffed with women at the entry level pay grade and were unable to add to the payroll until the numbers adjusted.
God forbid they hire a few straight white males.
Regardless, the world revolves around the ESI numbers right now, and the big donors pay attention.
In private industry, the numbers get reviewed by the “too big to fail” banks when making decisions about institutional stock purchases or financing projects with loans at a large scale … like brewery expansion.
At the end of the day, InBev’s Bud Light brand was trashed but the customers shifted to Modelo, produced in the next vat over. The tradeoff for the minor blip in sales figures is an ESI score through the roof.
Another interesting thing I saw last week in Wisconsin was the amount of Hamm’s merchandise in the MillerCoors brewery tour gift shop. The guide said that Hamm’s sales are through the roof this year thanks to the nostalgia with the mascot. No word on the bear’s ESI numbers.
Paging Spuds McKenzie …
BTW, Neil Patrick Harris on the InBev payroll. Interesting. His parents famously own a restaurant in Albuquerque … or did.
Do you mean ESG? ESI is various terms concerning “emergency” stuff.
The ESI “expert” at UW used those letters. My friend’s soon-to-be-ex-wife uses ESG when giving her title on her side gig of consulting on HR issues for companies.
As I described the other day, the “expert” was dressed head-to-toe Atheta which sets off red flags in my head. She may have been in the wrong, but my guess is she was having sex with someone to get and keep that job so it really didn’t matter what she said.
Hiring quotas were definitely the topic of discussion.
Maybe ‘I’ is Institutional where the ‘G’ in ESG is Government. Maybe the “expert” didn’t want to appear like another piglet at the trough to the undergrads.
The “expert” also didn’t have that air of genuine ability usually associated with First Responder career types.
Well, except for Brownie.
He did a heckuva job.
As long as Brownie continues to try to cash in on that FEMA gig in an attempt to build a career in talk radio, I consider him fair game with regard to how he handled himself in office working for Shrub, who has more than a few things to answer for himself.
Ah, equal opportunity… The child care workers in our canton have decided to unionize. They showed the meeting on TV: not a single guy to be seen.
Elder son works in childcare (in a different canton). He has had a couple of male apprentices over the years, but things like that change very slowly, because it’s not a highly regarded, well-paid field.
Ah, “The Beer Refreshing” was huge in Wisconsin when I was a teen. Schlitz, too. I even had a light up sign with the Hamms bear skating on a pond.
Hamm’s had the cool sparkling river signs too, where the river appeared to move…
When I was in college in the late 80s, Pabst Blue Ribbon, or just PBR was the “cool” choice for cheap beer. Early on we drank $19 KEGS of Olympia, then had to switch to $21 kegs of Old Milwaukee. “Old Swill” went down ok when it was cold. And free. Because we all know the answer to the question, “What is the BEST kind of beer?” “Cold beer and free beer.”
————–
58F this morning. Lots of mixed clouds but also sun and blue sky. D1 home sick today.
————
I’ve been having incredibly lucid dreams the last couple of nights. Full scripts, stories that make sense, color. Dialog. The stories are WEIRD, but well developed. And I can remember a lot of it upon waking. Strange for me. No idea why.
————-
n
For me – mid 90’s – it was Natural Light. Summers working at the pool – the older people, who could buy beer, preferred that, so that was what everyone drank. I tried to drink one years later. Nope, nasty. I don’t drink any beer now, even before I went low carb 10 years ago.
The mantra of almost every young drinker. It sure was for me.
Men involved with childcare and/or elementary education are viewed with deep suspicion in the US, and opportunities are limited.
Beyond Woke, the impact of the McMartin daycare fiasco lingers over 30 years later. Dr. Pournelle touched upon it frequently over the years since it was really the point where journalism started to turn in the US.
Those of you who are old enough to remember – quick, without using the Googles or the Duck, were the McMartins ultimately found guilty or innocent?
Now go look on the Interwebs for the answer. See the problem?
re the McMartins, I got the right answer but for the wrong witch hunt. The one I’d been thinking of was the one in Massachusetts the same year. All or almost all of the witch hunts turned out to be baseless, to the surprise of no one with a functioning brain.
Spuds was trans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spuds_MacKenzie
It’s better here, but he is careful. There are crazy parents everywhere…
He does stuff with the kids that few women would ever dream of. Everything from chess matches to sword fights (LARPing swords, of course). All of the kids get into this stuff, even (sometimes especially) the girls. Having a male mentor is important, especially for the kids who spent 5 days a week there.
The US was crazy even 30+ years ago. My boss (Lt. Col – I was a Captain at the time) mentioned that his kids’ team was desperate for coaches. I thought “what the heck” and said I’d give it a go. What I didn’t think about: his kids were both girls, it was a girls’ team. The other parents heard “single guy wants to be around our daughters” – and that was the end of it. Beyond stupid – I worked for this guy, I did sports with him, he knew me – but what can you do?
True, dat.
In the “shocked, I’m shocked” category, Texas public schools hate the idea of school choice vouchers. This is just one email from our lying sack of shite school system, attempting to manipulate parents into lobbying on their behalf.
– ok what teacher shortage crisis? If the schools weren’t dangerous hell holes, filled with lefty activists, maybe more people would become teachers. OH RIGHT, you are gatekeeping people who would and could teach out with .edu requirements.
– school safety? 5 cops at the volleyball game and there was still a fight that injured a teacher. Get the gangs and ‘bangers and illegals out of the schools and you solve most of the interpersonal problems. Diversity is NOT our strength.
– yup, inflation. Affects us all. Should be increases in funding to counter inflation, but everyone needs to tighten their belt. Maybe cut waste and un-needed programs …
– can’t have a program that is good for SOME students. Everyone has to suffer equally. And again, those “public tax dollars” are MY FUXING DOLLARS, not the state’s or the public’s.
– OH FAILING SCHOOLS. Well, just who is in charge of those failing schools now? It isn’t Betty’s Bible School. It’s the very same people telling us they are the only ones who can educate our kids.
– and if we can’t provide a personal aide for the three kids in special ed, at a cost of $100K annually, PER KID, well then, we can’t and those kids shouldn’t be sucking down a disproportionate share of MY MONEY.
– how’s that oversight and accountability working out for the failing schools, or the ones that are so sh!tty no one will work there? Not to mention that the districts are violently and vehemently opposed to that same “oversight” and “accountability” when they are actually applied.
– no they don’t.
– wtf? The private schools ALREADY exist, don’t need to be “created”, the expense is borne by the parents who pay TWICE, once with a school tax they don’t use, and again for the private school, and the operating costs of private schools, especially religious ones are often significantly less, relying on donors, endowments, and CHEAP TEACHERS.
–How exactly is it “unsustainable” and why do you care if it fails, that’s what you want anyway…
– they don’t “cost the state”. Kids are still being educated with their parents’ tax money although it’s going thru the skim machine first. What it’s not going to is bloated admin in public schools and wasteful programs like spending literal millions of dollars to change the names of schools because of a current prejudice against white men.
– additionally, if it weren’t for the state stealing money from “property rich” districts thru “re-capture” or “robin hood” laws, our district would have an additional $88M to spend locally.
– end the theft of “re-capture”* and local property taxes would result in a HUGE increase in school budgets, or the tax burden on residents could be reduced…
How about this? REFUND THE SURPLUS.
The “public tax dollars” are MY FUKCING DOLLARS. If I don’t have kids in public schools, why don’t I get a pass from funding public schools? No need to whine about church and state, (showing a complete lack of understanding of the Constitution) if you never collected my money from me in the first place. Fix the “failing schools”– make them a shining beacon of education that parents will fight to get their kids into, and a large percentage of parents won’t NEED school choice vouchers.
Clean your own house first, then complain about the other houses… and I note that black and brown people, by virtue of historically lower household income, suffer most from the lack of vouchers. Rich people have always been able to afford to buy whatever level of education they desire for their kids. Doesn’t the PTA care about darker colored people?
nick
*re-capture (which like a gun “buy back” incorrectly implies that they are just getting back what they had) is the Texas process where the State steals money raised by local school district taxation on property from areas with valuable property, and theoretically “re-distributes” it to districts that are poor, and don’t have a tax base large enough to pay for schools. In practice, they just reduced the part of the general budget going to schools by the amount they steal from “rich” districts. Our “rich” district has ~83% of students from homes below the poverty line, most of our students qualify for free breakfast and lunch. Yet we have to send 30-80 million dollars to the state every year.
In the interest of fairness, the PTA and district advocate against ‘re-capture’ every year too. Funny then that there is no mention in this letter, just vouchers.
re public schools and budget shortfalls, find the staffing levels in 1960: the number of teachers and the number of administrators and other staff per attending pupil. Reduce the school district’s staff count to that level. I bet that will take care of the budget problem.
Yeah and cut all the non-academic crap. High school shouldn’t be a farm team for pro sports. Intramural sports satisfy almost any benefit from sports in schools, without spending crazy money on stadiums. Cut the SEL, and any program that requires paying fees and having seminars (sorry MrsAtoz, but it’s poison.)
Stop buying new desks and chairs if the old ones are still good (I see this almost as often as the “steaks and hookers” deals that have them swapping out paper goods suppliers every year or two.) Stop buying library books, while sending pallets of books to the auctions. If you have shelf space, you shouldn’t be dumping books, unless it’s that gay tranny woke crap. Quit buying that especially.
Look REALLY HARD at mainstreaming efforts. Cut most of them, and get specialized care for the rest, if that is what the voters want. ASK THE VOTERS.
Kick the discipline problems out of the normal schools.
Illegals can attend, but must pay at least half of whatever the state funding per child level is. Can’t pay? Ask your church or charity, but NO TAX DOLLARS in support.
Hire for competence in subject, stick a cheap aide or compliance officer in the classroom with the new teacher to make sure no laws are broken, and cut the damn credentialism.
Livestream every classroom to registered parents of students in that class.
n
LOL I look at it as payback for paying out of pocket for 4/5 daughters going to private school thru 6th grade in San Antone. That was the best thing we ever did. All have BSs and two have MS/BA.
The solution is to eliminate the law “you have to go to school until you are 18.” The argument is “if you don’t put your kid thru school until they are 18, it will be Thunderdome.” Like it isn’t now?
I feared for my life:
Six Colorado cops are charged over shooting death of distressed motorist Christian Glass who called 911 and made heart-shaped signals for help – as sheriff’s deputy pleads guilty
Let’s see. Shot with bean bag round, tasered, then shot 5 times. Yeah, sounds like murder to me.
There are several issues with schools in the US. When I lived in NY I was on the school board for my local district (6 years), so this will reflect some of the issues that may be specific to NY state. Both the state and federal mandate programs that are supposed to help kids. In order to get the money from the governments there are lots of documents that have to filled out and sent to both the state and federal government to show that the district is complying with the mandates. This causes the ranks of the administration to grow. Both the state and federal government provide money to supposedly cover the costs of these programs. The federal government would only pay our district (and the other districts in our area) 42 cents of every dollar allocated for the programs. Another problem we had was that a large part of the taxes collected by the state to support schools came from the down state areas (I lived on Long Island which is down state). The state had a formula that they would run to then allocate the money to the districts. The problem was, the money collected wasn’t enough to meet the needs of all the districts so the upstate districts received what they needed but when the money ran out the down state districts were short changed.
Another big issue with money is special education. We spent about on average about $11,000 per student which at the time was below the state average for schools in NY. In special education we had many students (about 12% of our school population was special ed) where we were well over that number ($100,000 to $200,000). In NY state a student can’t graduate until they pass the Regents exams. Since many of these students are not capable of passing these tests, these students then remain on the school roster until they age out at 21.
There need to be some serious reforms to special education to fix this, but I don’t think it will happen. There are many other issues as well, but this is enough for today.
There are certain demographics, mostly white and female, who can be persuaded to do anything as long as you say “it’s for the children!”
Add in “special needs”, and they can’t spend my money fast enough.
These are the same people who say “teachers are underpaid” one minute, and then don’t understand that those underpaid teachers are the ones who fail our kids at math. And English. And everything else.
The Governor and the Legislature gave away the surplus to the ISDs in the property tax “reform” which was confirmed by voters last week.
You will see a temporary reduction in taxes for two years and then get ready for the 2026 trim notice sticker shock, when the real tax rates hit.
The Geico Gecko also got to “wet his beak” with surplus money thanks to Proposition 7, his generator slush fund which Dan Patrick failed to get through the Legislature but managed to place on the November ballot.
Being a teacher (job-wise college level, but in my free time I’ve worked a lot with younger kids), this is a giant sore point for me. From my experience with US public schools, Nick has the right prerequisites. A bit more detail from my perspective:
– No competitive sports, just phys-ed. If kids want competition, they can join student clubs that meet after school hours, but are not run or financed by the schools. Ballet club? Football club? Chess club? Sure, go wild, just not part of school.
– Group kids by ability. That means a genuine gifted program. It also means a genuine “slow” program. The great middle is freed from both. Everybody gets the attention they need. Movement between tracks must obviously be possible – kids can be misclassified, change due to motivation, etc..
– Troublemakers need special, regimented schools where they live during the school year. Not quite a prison, but a serious reduction in freedom, with close supervision. Keep them away from other kids, and maybe reform some of them.
If you had those measures in place, you could attract better teachers. How to finance this? I found an interesting table that summaraizes US national data since 1950. Looking at the percentage of school staff that are teachers (as opposed to local or district overhead):
1950 70% – 1970 60% – 1980 52% – 2000 52% – 2020 48%
So in 1950, for every teacher there was 0.42 of other staff. In 2020, for every teacher there was slightly more than 1.0 of other staff. That’s more than a doubling of overhead personnel. That doesn’t count the people in the government bureaucracies, whose existence has driven the administrative bloat. Cut the bloat, and you have plenty of money…
What I find more difficult to understand is that the number of students per teacher has dropped from 27.5 to 15.4 over the same time period. Are classes really half the size they used to be? That seems…unlikely. Perhaps teachers are teaching fewer classes, because they are also doing more overhead tasks? I’m not current on US schools, so I’m not sure how interpret it.
Buc-ee’s headed to Wisconsin?!?
That specific location is genius if they can pull it off.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/2023/09/15/buc-ees-is-bringing-beaver-fever-to-wisconsin-why-its-a-big-deal/70834460007/
“Texas man gets an unusual visit from a black bear outside of his home”
https://www.chron.com/life/wildlife/article/texas-bear-sighting-18493776.php
“The population of the state-endangered species is slowly bouncing back in the state.”
Oh hell no !
From SRW in the Fort Bend Journal:
“Great Parenting”
“Child: ”Mom, may I sleep in your room tonight, I’m scared.””
“Mom: ”No, I can’t risk the monster following you into my room and killing me.””
“Maybe truth isn’t always the best policy.”
“How does climate change threaten where you live? A region-by-region guide.”
https://grist.org/climate/national-climate-assessment-2023-us-regional-impacts-summary/
“The U.S. government’s most comprehensive report on the effects of climate change details challenges for every part of the country.”
“Every four years, the federal government is required to gather up the leading research on how climate change is affecting Americans, boil it all down, and then publish a National Climate Assessment. This report, a collaboration between more than a dozen federal agencies and a wide array of academic researchers, takes stock of just how severe global warming has become and meticulously breaks down its effects by geography — 10 distinct regions in total, encompassing all of the country’s states and territories.”
Our tax dollars paid for this crap.
And, we are all going to die.
So in 1950, for every teacher there was 0.42 of other staff. In 2020, for every teacher there was slightly more than 1.0 of other staff. That’s more than a doubling of overhead personnel. That doesn’t count the people in the government bureaucracies, whose existence has driven the administrative bloat. Cut the bloat, and you have plenty of money…
Texas Public schools are required to have a minimum of 65% teachers. I suspect that the numbers are severely finagled to get there.
“Every Leader Involved in Awful Response to Loudoun Girls’ Bathroom Rape is Now Out of Office”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/every-leader-involved-in-awful-response-to-loudoun-girls-bathroom-rape-is-now-out-of-office/
“only two of the incumbent school board members ran for reelection, and both lost their races”
Good. Only a million more to go.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Amazon lays off hundreds in its Alexa division as it plows resources into AI”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-lays-off-hundreds-alexa-202842950.html
“NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is cutting hundreds of jobs in the unit that handles its popular voice assistant Alexa as it plows more resources into artificial intelligence.”
I would have thought that Alexa qualified as an AI. I guess that Alexa is too hard wired to qualify as an AI today.
I’ve got another alligator in the office front pond. He / she / it is only three foot long. I did not try to pet it this time. This the tenth or so alligator.
Alexa isn’t based on Hot Skillz tech.
Even Amazon management has the bug to dump a bunch of money into Nvidia GPUs.
Will it work?
Is Batman a transvestite? Who knows.
Make sure the pinheads who work for your tenants’ companies aren’t feeding the gator.
If they are, call the county wildlife control.
“Texas House votes to remove school vouchers from massive education bill”
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/16/texas-house-school-vouchers/
Why am I not surprised ? The rural school districts want to maintain their monopolies.
Don’t know about that, but Batwoman was a non-heterosexual thief of non-whiteness, with a man’s given name. She stole a batsuit from the man who created it and then went out to fight
crimethe patriarchy. The only real mystery is how the show lasted past about the third episode.“2024 Chevrolet 2500 HD Crew Cab Duramax Review”
https://www.carpro.com/vehicle-reviews/2024-chevrolet-2500-hd-crew-cab-duramax-review
“This week we are looking at the 2024 Chevrolet 2500 Crew Cab LTZ with the Duramax diesel. This heavy-duty truck was completely redesigned for 2024 with power train upgrades, a new interior, improved tech, and improved trailer towing capabilities.”
“Speaking of, under that huge aluminum hood you’ll find the 6.6-liter Duramax diesel that is pumping out 470-horses, but a very strong 975-pound feet of torque. It has a 10-speed Allison automatic transmission.”
“MSRP: Base price $61,200 as equipped $83,545 with transportation.”
Nope. I’ve bought my last Chevy.
“The Shocking Truth About Climate Change” By M Dowling
https://www.independentsentinel.com/the-shocking-truth-about-climate-change/
“We came to the point where we think that we’re going to prevent bad weather by eliminating fossil fuels. It’s just about the most nonsensical, illogical thing that I can imagine, and the whole world is caught up in this nonsense. ~~~ Climateologist, Judith Currry”
““The 1992 climate Treaty of the UN to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change, 196 countries, including the US scientists, this was in 1992 before there was any evidence that humans were impacting the climate and they went ahead with this treaty so you can see that the policy cart was way out in front of the scientific horse from the very beginning.”
It is a lot of nonsense that we are blowing incredible amounts of money on. We only have so much capital in the USA and they are throwing it away.
“Ransomware gang files SEC complaint over victim’s undisclosed breach”
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-files-sec-complaint-over-victims-undisclosed-breach/
“The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware operation has taken extortion to a new level by filing a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint against one of their alleged victims for not complying with the four-day rule to disclose a cyberattack.”
You have got to be kidding me. That is audacious.
Cheap!
Truck is loaded and I’m doing my last chores. Then it’s off to the lake for a while. Where I will work. And have tiny little fires.
n
One amazing wig.
Truck is loaded and I’m doing my last chores. Then it’s off to the lake for a while. Where I will work. And have tiny little fires.
It is so dry that I ran the water sprinkler system at lunchtime. There goes another $30 of water.
Female boxer learns at last moment her opponent’s manhood was kept a secret, drops out of women’s competition
https://www.theblaze.com/news/female-boxer-learns-at-last-moment-her-opponents-manhood-was-kept-a-secret
If fantasy were real I’d contribute to The Ringer Project, wherein a 7-foot 300-lb Wookie shows up and swears “I identify at a 160-lb human female”.
I haven’t read the two studies cited, but I’m sure that they not only cite other work, but enough time has passed that they in turn have been cited. I’m going to make a list and stick it in every discussion where some PLT claims that there is no strength/speed advantage to being born male or that testosterone blockers negates it.
@Lynn
“It is a lot of nonsense that we are blowing incredible amounts of money on. We only have so much capital in the USA and they are throwing it away.”
The commies know exactly what they are doing at the instruction of their Chinese masters.
This month?
They tried to reboot Green Lantern as a fag blackmailed by J. Edgar Hoover into being his party boy.
The alphabet crowd couldn’t buy enough copies to move the sales needle. Does that prove they are fewer and/or less dedicated than the Scientologists?
>>I would have thought that Alexa qualified as an AI. I guess that Alexa is too hard wired to qualify as an AI today.
What Alexa didn’t quite qualify as was the profit center that the ‘Zon expected.
“HORROR: Flight Attendant in Chicago Unresponsive After Vagrant with 21 Convictions Spears Her in the Head with Log in “Javelin-Like Manner””
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/horror-flight-attendant-chicago-unresponsive-after-vagrant-21/
“A 23-year-old unidentified flight attendant was shopping on Chicago’s Mag Mile during a layover when Bruce Diamond, 52, a career criminal with a long rap sheet, threw a log at her head in a random attack.”
“According to reports, the young woman was attacked after she walked out of a Burberry store on Michigan Avenue. The suspect threw the log at her head in a ‘javelin-like manner’ and walked away as the victim lay on the ground in grave condition.”
I am reminded what Scott Adams said about the Amish. I am reading about way too many of these unprovoked attacks over the last few years.
In boxing?!?! Are they nuts?
Really, in almost any sport, but especially in full contact sports – idiocy. A guy who went through puberty has a huge advantage over a woman. I did a lot of martial arts, and often trained against women. It was fine for technique, but you had to be careful. If you powered through with bad technique – something that wouldn’t work against a guy – you could seriously injure a woman.
There was a story I read about a woman karate student. She was progressing well, getting cocky, and her sensei apparently thought she needed a reality check. She was asked to give a full-power stomach punch to a man. He just stood there and looked at her. Gender difference, point made.